A Not So Simple Change
by The Dragonic Saint
Summary: Influenced by Admiral Tigerclaws story: Sleeping With The Girls. A being of infinite power and knowledge decides to do something out of boredom. The consequences of those actions aren't felt by it, but me as I try to survive the situation it put me in.
1. Chapter 1 What Happened?

What Happened?

AN: This story will be using a character from another story that is currently in the works with my brothers, and because of some issues that are out of our control, we can't write the story. Now this is important because once that is cleared up, I **WILL** continue writing that one, as I don't expect this to do well or even be popular. It was just an idea that popped into my head yesterday, and it wouldn't leave. One last thing that I will say is that the character is in fact me, with a different name. As for the story premise, I will put myself (as the writer) into a situation that is out of the norm, to put it politely. Now the details and summary will be on my author's page. Good day to you fine readers.

* * *

I walked through the house to my bed. It wasn't anything that great. After all I shared the room with three of my brothers. As such it was, of course, a mess. We had two bunk beds that were on opposite sides of the room. Fortunately our parents were willing to give up the master bedroom, so we wouldn't end up killing each other from the small amount of space in-between us. It was around two o'clock in the afternoon, and having mowed the lawn I decided to, after showering, go take a nap, and if not that just lay down.

I don't know about everyone else, but I have to lie there for hours at times before sleep finally overcomes me. My Mom had the same problem at my age apparently. Our minds just keep moving, and don't stop. Going over anything and everything, never stopping, and annoyingly enough it took me years before I taught myself how to meditate well enough to solve this problem. Oddly enough, when I finally got to the point where I could clear my mind at any time, and enter a state where… Well it is hard to explain, but feeling your whole body all at once is as close as I could come to it. I found that when I am trying to go to sleep it doesn't help. In fact it does the opposite. Funny how that works, but that's life for you.

Not knowing what to do I learned to just go with the flow so to speak. Something I learned to do while doing this is to not think. I know what you are thinking, 'didn't he already say that'? Well in a sense that is true, but what I am talking about is conscious thought. Sub-conscious thought is another matter. In other words, I just moved and did things while letting my sub-conscious mind think. Analyzing everything around me, my sight, hearing, touch, and smell even, if you could ever manage it, it is like letting everything just come to you. After all you aren't doing the thinking, your sub-conscious mind is. Of course there will be nay sayers, after all I don't expect many to understand it, but it is what it is, and that is as good as I could explain it.

As I get to the room to take my nap, I find that my youngest brother is on his bottom bunk, on the other side of the room. He is reading something off of his PSP GO. I look away and quickly turn off the lights. Then I climb up to my bunk and lay down. It's not the best of beds out there, but it's the one I use and I am quite content with it. I make myself comfortable, and lay down. I once again just lose myself to my thoughts, memories, and dreams. It takes a while, but I eventually nod off.

* * *

When I first woke up, my first thought was along the lines of deciding whether or not to have a sandwich for dinner, or go with whatever is made. Hey, it's a good sandwich, but then I realized that I wasn't curled up on my bed.

I froze. My mind went blank as I tried to figure out if I was in my house or somewhere else. I listened for anything, slowly shifted my body to find out what I am laying on, and that where everything went FUBAR in my head.

"_What. The. Hell."_ I was rather confused at the moment. You see, I have not only somehow moved into a different body, but it isn't even human. Not even human shaped for that matter.

I opened my eyes slowly, trying to keep my mind from exploding from the thoughts that were going through it. Thoughts ranging from how this happened, to what could cause it, and even a very small part of it wondering if I'm still going to get that sandwich today.

I shake my head and think, _"Okay, sandwich aside. I need to think here. I'm in some type of new body, but where I am. I can worry about my body later… I hope."_ Depressing as it was I knew that I knew nothing, and as such I had to figure things out on my own. I take a deep breath and find out that I am not only breathing through my mouth. A shiver goes through my body in fear, but I clamp down on it. Take it and all my other emotions and suppress them. It took several minutes, as I have never been in a situation where I was in any real danger in a long time, but afterwards I could think much more clearly. Once done I open my eyes to find that I am still lying down, but I stay down not knowing my situation. I lift my head and look around, ignoring the new sensations of my new body for the moment.

I find that I am in some type of cave and it is either pitch black, this body has crappy night vision, or I'm just not use to this particular body. Either way it doesn't matter much, as I still can't see where I am. _"I can't even see WHAT my new body looks like, much less my surroundings."_ I pause as I realize that there is a breeze, the sound of trees in the distance, and accompanying that is the sound of animals. _"Okay that could be a good sign, or I have been kidnapped by aliens and had my mind put in a body that is… Really messed up, big as far as I can tell, and I probably can't even-"_That is when it hit me. I had been moving my head around as if I had been doing it for years, in this body. "_I shouldn't even know how to move m- its head… Okay need to try to keep things simple… If I am in control of this body then it is mine, but… how did I get in it?"_ That question I knew would haunt me, but I also knew that the chances of me EVER finding out how this had happened is basically zero.

"_One thing at a time, first I need to see if I can move in this body, and if that me moving my head was just a fluke or not."_ I slowly start to shift my body slowly around, taking my time so that I get a feel for what is and isn't there. As I am moving my new body around I find it very disturbing how I now have an extra set of limbs, but that is nowhere near as disturbing as the fact that my new body is being controlled by me as if I had been in the pilot seat for many years. _"Okay… This just went from holy shit, to completely out there."_Here I couldn't help, but let the skepticism that had been at the edges of my mind finally seep in. As it did I took a deep breath as I thought, _"This could just be a dream… But everything is so real."_ I let out a sigh and ignore how the air come out in such an alien way as I thought, _"Well if it is a dream it would explain this whole thing. After all I HAVE had stranger dreams, but there is one glaring problem with that idea. None of the dreams were this fluid, this complete… This detailed…"_

It is true. I have had just as strange dreams, but once again they don't flow like this. They skip around, mixing as much as they are moving. Going from one to another, not staying for more than a few minutes in the same spot and I am always doing something, that was what my dream theory depended upon. Unfortunately the longer I stay here in one spot the more unlikely that would be.

So I just waited. Waited for this to end, but that end never came, and the less sure I was as time passed.

As the minutes passed I couldn't help but think about my body. What happened to it? How is it possible for this to happen? What am I going to do now?

Out of all of those questions the last was the most important to me. As the chances of this being a dream slowly went down the drain as time went on unabated by all that were at its mercy. I still held some hope that this was a dream, but I knew that it wasn't deep down. Everything was too real, the sound of trees in the distance, the smell of the rocks and water around me, all of the feelings that my new body were telling me… It all told me that this was my new life. A life as something that I probably didn't know of, but I had a very small suspicion as to what I could be. I only hoped that I was wrong because if I wasn't… Then life will be veeeeery interesting for me in the foreseeable future.

"_Interesting doesn't even begin to describe what is going to be my life if I'm right, but I must admit, to become one of those would put me rather high on the food chain. If I am not one of those… Then I will just have to live with it."_ I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I slowly push myself up to my feet, only to hit the top of the cave. Now I will admit that I did let out a rather undignified yelp at this time, but their appeared to be some VERY sensitive organs on my back, and they seemed to be connected to my head. They obviously didn't like being forced into a ceiling so hard. Not that I meant to but still.

I decided that crouching was the best way to go here, and slowly made my way closer to the sounds. It was rather cramped, but I managed to get to the exit. All the way cursing cave systems that were almost too small for my new body.

Once I had reached the exit I paused. I looked out at everything carefully, taking in all the detail I can, and trying to see if I can figure out where I am from the view. I wasn't able to figure out where I was of course, but at least I knew I wasn't on a moon almost the size of Earth. The scene before me was far too different from that movie, so I'm not worried about that.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. I look to the sky and it seemed to be around noon and I didn't want to be out in the sun at its hottest. I don't know if this body sweats or not so best to play it safe. I lay down just inside of the cave. It was a rather beautiful view so I sat there for almost half an hour before I realized that I could see myself.

"_Gee Spencer."_I thought to myself,_ "Way to win Stupid Move of the Year Award."_ I grumble as I finally moved to look at my new body.

"_Just as I had thought."_ A grin over took my face. I had an extra set of limbs, just behind my forelegs. That alone pretty much confirmed what I was for me. However what really sold it was my skin.

"_More like a layer of black and purple armor."_ Yes that grin on my face became decidedly smug as I viewed what I could of myself. I was one of the most deadly creatures that I could think of… That didn't have any type of magic or some type of stupid enhancing capability to them. _"Yesssss. This will be fun."_ I cut off the evil laughter before it could start. After all I don't want to start getting a swelled head. That could lead to death, and/or some rather uncomfortable situations.

Deciding that now was a good a time as any to figure this out, I calm myself down and sort out the questions in my mind. So I can figure them out one at a time. _"If I can."_ I thought darkly.

I shake my head harshly. If I still had a human body I would hit myself in the head, but seeing as I have clawed versions of them… I wisely decide not to. _"Okay first thing first. If this isn't a dream, and I am pretty much convinced it isn't one. I NEED to get that type of thinking out of my head NOW. I don't have time to be brooding like some Uchiha!"_ I shift uncomfortably here and continue my previous thoughts, _"Now I obviously won't be figuring out how I got here or how I got this body, but I can figure out where I am."_ I look around some. _"Okay not from here, but somewhere else. And another thing-"_Here my thought take a more subdued tone. _"I can't interact with other humans anymore. At least, not without them run like chickens with their heads cut off. After all I can't prove to them that I WON'T eat them by growling at them. Yes I am pretty sure that I can't talk."_

Out of curiosity I open my mouth and try to speak. I try saying something simple like: I have lived on the beach. Only for some odd roaring and growling sounds to come out, but there was one part of the sounds I made that almost sounded like some twisted form of speech. Doing the same thing again I receive the same results. Except I catch what the twisted remnant of my previous existence sounded like. _"It's sounds like I am saying on… Almost sounds more like I am dragging the n to much and emphasizing the roar part of me too much. Hmmmmmmmm something to work on because if I can learn to talk again…"_

I knew it wouldn't be that easy though. The vocal cords were completely different and chances were that I was missing a good chunk of the ones needed to recreate the English language, with this body at least. _"Well it coul- STOP RIGHT THEIR SPENCER. Geezzz I almost committed a cardinal sin of pretty much any book, movie, or game. You never ever, EVER, say those forbidden words. They always bring MORE trouble than you need at that time."_ I shake my head and resist the temptation to continue along that thought process, for fear of saying The Words. They might not work, but I REALLY don't want to test karma right now of all times.

Continuing on with a somewhat different train of thought, _"Yes well despite not being able to instantly be able to speak English, it doesn't mean that I won't be able to recover most if not all of my ability to speak. Given enough time and practice at least."_ I take another look around me and decide to let it all go for the moment and take another nap. _"After all that it's the last thing I did before I got in this situation. Who knows, maybe I will go back if I go to sleep."_

With that thought in mind I decide to pass the time waiting for go to sleep, but before I do one last thought decides to visit, _"Despite it all… Life as a Thanator shouldn't be that bad…"_ And in the back of my mind I held onto a small hope inside of me that maybe, just maybe, I will wake back up in my bed. Curled up and resting peacefully. I hoped and hoped…and hoped, and then I slept.


	2. Chapter 2 What Now?

What Now

AN: I have gone over my last chapter, and found that I did not add as much detail as I would have liked. I won't redo it, I find that troublesome when authors do that because I have to go back and reread that chapter. So I will strive from here on out to do better. Also I the tags say this is a Halo Avatar crossover. I am sorry if some of you don't like how it is moving, it will be slow moving for a while, but it will pick up soon enough. I will move on to Halo, but that will take time. As for Avatar, the only thing from there will be my new body, so no Unobtainium. Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

* * *

I usually remember my dreams, but this time I didn't. I only have the vaguest of feeling of family… family that is lost to me. So lost was I in that dream I didn't realize where I was right away, but it became obvious to me where I was with my breathing.

I take a deep breath and squeeze my already shut eyes hard. It started to hurt after a few seconds, but I didn't care. I knew where I was and it wasn't in my bed, it wasn't with my family… it wasn't home. I quickly take hold of my sadness and anger before it overcomes and with several deep breaths I slowly bury it deep inside me.

_"As much as you know you want to Spencer, now isn't the time to do this."_ I scowl and slowly flex my front paws as I continue thinking, _"Remember what Mom and Dad say 'Life sucks and then you die'. Even though I doubt that they meant it for this particular situation the sentiment still stands. So GET UP AND DO SOMETHING, AND STOP WHINING ABOUT IT."_ With that thought in mind I open my eyes. Only to be greeted by one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen.

The cave was on a slight ledge that went down about twenty feet. Beyond that was a forest that was going though twilight. I must have been in a valley with me on the east side because the sun sets in the west. I do admit that I have seen pictures of things like this, but to actually be there is something else entirely. To feel the rocks beneath my feet, smell the air around me, and everything else. Granted it was truly beautiful, but it could be better.

"_Seeing this in my human body…"_ I shake my head in annoyance, _"Look this won't be easy, but I have to let the past go. As much as it hurts… it must be done."_ I take a deep breath and hold it in for about a minute, and I didn't feel the familiar burn of my body demanding oxygen. With a shake of my head I resume breathing and decide to test the limits of my body later._ "Well look on the bright side, your new body far out strips your old one easy, and I'm not even on Pandora."_ A slight grin appears on my face with that last thought, but it doesn't stay long.

And it was true, I wasn't on Pandora. It was rather obvious with the missing fauna that glows in the dark, but in the end I still don't know where I am. _"Hmmmmm…"_ I gaze intently at the forest trying to see if there is anything familiar from Earth that I would recognize, but I couldn't see anything from where I was, and the light was rapidly leaving.

"_I probably can't see any animals because they are hiding from me."_ I must admit that I did feel a little smug as I had a grin on me that must have made me look like some demented creature. I start to laugh lightly here as I think, _"That is if they didn't already think I was some type of creature from hell already!"_ I almost lose control of myself and slowly come down from my laughing/giggling fit.

Once finished I have something resembling a content smile on my new face. _"See it isn't all that bad… Damn it all!"_ I had honestly tried not to say something like that because it ALWAYS invites some type of trouble that you don't need, and surly enough I got trouble.

Fortunately it wasn't anything really bad, as I jerked half way to my feet because of a groaning/growling noise coming from me. I blink a few times and think, _"If I could, I am almost one-hundred percent sure that I would have one of those sweat drop things from animes. I am glad that I didn't end up in some screwed up cartoon thing though."_ I let out another sigh and lay back down. _"Well I suppose that I need to go eat…"_

The idea of killing something to eat wasn't the problem, after all survival of the fittest and all of that. The problem was that I didn't know if I could catch something in the forest. I could easily run something down out in the open, but maneuvering through the forest is this new body is a completely different cookie. _"Well I know how to move just fine in this new body, right? So maybe I will be able to maneuver easy enough as well."_ It was a pretty sound theory from my point of view so I decided to give it a shot.

"_First thing first though. I need to get down from this ledge, shouldn't be too hard. After all the Thanator that almost got Sully in the Avatar movie jumper around twenty feet, and that was without a running start…"_ Once again a grin along with some evil laughter tried to surface. _"Oh yes. I think I am going to get use to this."_

I slowly get up, trying to get a feel for my new body. Not like before, where I was just seeing what I was. No this time I was feeling the muscles as they moved, so I would have some type of idea as to what I was going to be doing. _"Okay… This is cool. Hmmm"_ I always found the Thanator interesting from the moment I saw one pop its head over a tree in the movie, and I had many ideas as to how fast, nimble, and powerful it- _"No. How fast __**I**__ can be, how nimble __**I **__can be, and how powerful __**I**__ can be."_ I let out a low growl as I got up with those thoughts I mind.

I looked down at the area in front of me and then looked to my left and right, I paused when I saw a ledge to my right. I keep looking in between them as I think, _"I could take the easy path to my right."_ I gaze at it for a few moments and come to my conclusion. _"If I am going to live in a Thanator body, I better start acting like it. The one in the movie made that jump and landed safely, and it pushed itself that high. So, if I jump out making a landing should be pretty easy."_

I look behind me to see if I can get a running start, but there wasn't enough room. So I brace myself and with one last thought jump. _"I always did want to go flying."_Pushing myself as much as I could I throw my new self in to the air, and hope for the best.

Now flying through the air like that was amazing. It had my heart pumping and the feeling of falling was amazing. Everything seemed to slow down as I was falling, but I knew that it was my brain kicking it into over drive to compensate for what it interpreted as a dangerous situation.

It wasn't the most graceful of landings, but at least I didn't break anything. I started to move my body around like I did earlier, but this time to see if moving my muscles would agitate something that is out of place, and while I was doing that, in my mind I went over the jump again and again in my mind. I only came to one conclusion, _"I want to do that aga- Ouch!"_ I blink as I look, as well as I could, at my left front forepaw. _"Hmmm, must have landed on it wrong."_ I flex it again only to find it didn't hurt as much as it did the first time. _"Okay. I guess I didn't hurt myself as much as I thought. Still lesson learned, not that it mattered if I couldn't run anyway."_ I look at the forest in front of me. _"I wouldn't be able to run in their anyway, but I better start to look for something to eat, before my gut scares everything off in a five mile radius."_ I think as my stomach lets out another loud growl.

It has been four hours since I set out into the forest, and I came to the conclusion that I hate it, the forest that is. _"All of the trees are just too damn close together, and I haven't found anything to eat yet."_ I let out a deep and long sigh and only now realize that it is coming out like a deep growl. _"Well… that could defiantly be a part of the problem. I'm scaring away any prey before I can even get close enough to it to catch it."_ I go to sigh only to stop myself as I remembered that I need to be quite. Not some dumb beast wandering through the forest, relying on dumb luck to get my nex-

"_I can see just fine and it is almost pitch black under the canopy cover."_ My stomach growls again, except it is louder this time. _"Well as interesting as this is I still need to find something to eat. Hmmmmmm."_ I think for several minutes about what I could do to hunt food, when I realized that Thanator are native to this environment and I need to think about what a Thanator can do to hunt better.

_Okay let's see, thei-"_ I sigh in frustration with myself. _"Okay my body has its massive size and that will allow __**me**__ to cover vast areas quickly, even faster if I can manage to get out of this forest, but one thing at a time, so speed isn't a problem. My strength will allow me to rip these trees to pieces-"_I remember the movie where the one Thanator was ripping one of the much larger Pandora trees into pieces, to get at its prey. _"So I have the strength, no problem on that side. The biggest problem will be finding the accursed animals in the first place, so tracking… What can a Thanator do to track something?"_

Now I must say that I did actually get up and start to bang my head against a tree when I realized it. _"I have been ignoring, what is probably my biggest asset, for what? Urrrragghhhhhhhhhh."_ I stopped in surprise when something made a loud cracking sound. I backed away when I realized that the tree I had been hitting my head on was starting to break. Now it wasn't some massive monster of a thing, so it wasn't much of a surprise when it started to fall down.

With that it was like the forest, that wasn't making much noise because of my presence, came to life. All of a sudden there were little animals moving out of the way, but what drawed my attention away from that was the sound of what could only be a large animals moving away as fast as they could.

As soon as I was sure that I wouldn't be hurt by the tree I gave chase right away. I pushed past anything that tried to get in my way, and by the sounds of panic I could tell that I was gaining ground very quickly. From there it took only seconds for me to catch the group, and a moment later I burst into a clearing, with a group of Silverbacks from the looks of it, and they were only about half way through it. It sucked for them that it was only about a fifty foot wide clearing and with that I was upon them.

Despite the fact that I could hear them crying out in terror as I moved to jump at them I used the momentum I had gained from the run and jumped, and oh boy did I soar through the air towards them. I just missed one, a male from the looks of it. He quickly tried to move away, but I was faster and he was moving away from the pack as they were running out of the clearing. I knew that a Thanator could, within the time it takes a shutter on a quality camera to close and open once, move its head out and clamp down into something with its jaws. Really the Silverback stood no chance as turned my head so I could open them sideways and shot forward with my jaws catching it as it was turning away to run.

My jaws were about two and a half feet wide and before you got to the muscles for the jaw, and another foot behind that. Along with my front teeth, which were about eight inches long when measuring the most forward ones and getting smaller about an inch every pair back. Then there is the fact that I could open my jaws about four feet at the widest, a little more if I really wanted, but I risk hurting myself then. Add on top of that, the fact that I could bite down with about one and a half tons of force. Well let's say it didn't live long.

I caught it around its chest and with one hard as I could squeeze my jaw crushed its chest cavity. A shiver traveled up and down my frame as I tasted the blood and meat, and I must admit that I don't like killing things, but if it's between me and the gorilla… I'll pick me every time. With that I realized that all was quiet around me, almost as if my very surroundings were waiting for something, but my stomach growled again and I looked back to the gorilla. I will admit that I did feel some regret, but honestly not a lot over the gorilla's death.

That done I reached down and grabbed an arm with my jaw and moved my right front forearm to hold it in place. With that done, I repositioned my jaw closed to the shoulder and quickly tore it off, and swallowed it whole. I move quickly and did the same with the other limbs, and then I tore apart the torso into four chunks and ate it. It was messy but in the end I was satisfied. After all a gorilla around twelve hundred pounds is a lot of meat.

I take a deep breath, and instead of smelling the forest I smelled blood and nothing else. I let out the breath and move to the outer portion of the clearing. _"It doesn't help with the blood smell much… but to be completely honest… it's not that bad with this body, the taste as well."_ A shiver goes down my spine at the thought. _"I never thought that raw meat would taste so good, but then again I have never been a Thanator before."_ I sit down once I reach the edge of the clearing, not wanting to go back into that cramped space so soon again. I start laughing at that thought. _"Imagine, I have all the space I have ever wanted and more, and not I am saying that it is cramped! Ohhhh, ohhh that is good."_

I calm down after a few seconds and look at my front forepaws. _"Well now that I have a new body I might as well keep it clean."_ With that I lift my right front forepaw and start liking it clean. Granted I couldn't get it all and the dirt didn't taste that great I still cleaned the majority of my front forepaws, this took around twenty minutes.

"_Now if I could only find a river or something like that to rinse off the rest in."_ My mind then suddenly caught up with me as I realized what exactly I had just eaten. _"I know that I was hungry and such, but still, not realizing that that was a Silverback gorilla… Damn I must have been starving or this was this body's first meal."_ I shake my head to clear my thoughts and get back on track. _"Okay since that was a Silverback, that means I am on Earth, or at least chances are that I am on some version of it. So there must be other humans around here… But"_ I look down at my recently cleaned **paw**. _"I'm not exactly human anymore am I?"_

"_I can't tal-"_ I blink a few times in realization. _"Yes I can't talk to them, but I can still do this."_ I move the same paw I was gazing at and reach down to the ground. Curling all but one of my clawed fingers like appendages, I start to write into the dirt: I am Human. After a moment of contemplation I add: in Spirit. I did this one deeper in the dirt, imagining that part of the message being almost carved into my soul as it was in the dirt. It was a message that I hoped that would help me move on and accept my new roll, in whatever new world I found myself in.

"_Yes. I __**am**__ beast in body, but more importantly I __**am **__human in spirit. Don't give up yet Spencer. You'll know what to do when the time comes."_ With that I try flaring up the pads along my head, so I can see if the quills do in fact allow me to be aware of my surroundings. At first I didn't get anything but then I closed my eyes and I could have sworn that I started to see something, but I heard the sound of… Well he couldn't tell right off, but it sounded familiar, **very** familiar.

I got up and decided to move out of the clearing towards the valley side closest to me. After all valor has its place, but not when I don't even know what version of Earth I'm in. _"That sound might be familiar, but chances are they will kill __**anything**__ that endangers those gorillas… and I don't want to be in the crosshairs when they arrive."_

* * *

As I moved up the mountain side I finally got a look at what was making that eerily familiar sound, and I froze as I got a look because now I wish I hadn't looked. _"Well… I am so far up the creek without a paddle, that I am stuck if they try to hunt me down."_

I forced myself to turn around and move even faster. Because behind me were two Pelican drop ships, that were missing a lot of armor, its missile pods, and the chain gun mounted under the front part of the air craft. I couldn't be one hundred percent sure about the chain gun because I was around five hundred feet away, and there **was** something under the front part of the Pelican.

"_I don't know what is worse…"_ I speed up even more as I hear them start to land. _"Having a fucking chain gun that is from Halo pointed at me or them being able to track me with heat sensing gear from Halo."_ I knew that the real thing would be far worse than the stuff from the games. I read the books and I know that I might as well be a target standing still with signs pointing at me that are lighted up! Those damned things are scary accurate when they aren't moving at high speeds, and the bullets they would be carrying would tear right through me.

I froze as I realized I knew exactly where I was, but not **when** I was. I look back in the direction of the clearing and think, _"Okay at the risk of life and limb… Will I go down their? I can save __**so many**__** lives**__, if I have arrived early enough, but if not… Then I can't change anything, and they will probably shoot me on sight… It comes down to what I consider more important, millions of other peoples lives or just my life?"_

I start to move back down the mountain as I made my choice. _"Well here is to a great existence as a Thanator for all of less than one day, and one hell of a continuation if I make it out of this alive."_

* * *

It only took me about three minutes to get close enough to start to hear the people in the clearing, only fifty feet… I think, but it is hard to tell measurements in feet when you're as big as me. Even then I could only make out there voices not much else, but I could tell they were a little confused, and the closer I got the better I could hear them, and once I got to what I thought was twenty feet I could hear them. Of course it helped that they shut off the engines. _"Ah! There we go, now what do they have to say?"_

"Okay spread out some more people. There has to be some remnants of the Nathan somewhere! Don't get to close to the edges of the clearing though!" It sounded like a female, possibly British accent, but I wasn't always the best at telling the nationality of someone from their voice, unless it was rather obvious.

There was a general agreement from the workers, but I couldn't tell how many of them there were. _"I definitely heard more than five people though, and considering that there are two Pelicans. There could be anywhere from eight to twelve more, including the pilots."_

I decided to move a little closer, but it took me around three minutes to get within five feet of the clearing. I couldn't see too much but, I could tell their numbers. _"Okay around twenty of them and it looks like a cage for."_ I look down at myself and blink. _"Sorry Nathan, but at least your death was quick."_ I look back at the clearing only to see more light flooding the forest from on top of the Pelicans and a voice yell out.

"Okay Susan! We got the lights up and running!" One of the two people up on the Pelican closest to me yells out to who I know now is Susan.

Susan yells back in response, "Good! Now you and your buddies keep your asses up there and watch for anything!"

"Will do me and the boys have your back."

She laughs and yells one last thing before continuing with her own part of the search, "It had better be more than mine, and keep your eyes above my waist this time!" This got some laughs from the majority of the group, and even a jeer or two.

He waved his hand and finished with, "Yeah, yeah! Just finish this up quickly!"

There wasn't any more talking in between those two, but the other people were chattering away. Their favorite topic seemed to be about my paw prints in the ground. A minute later one of the people gets to the writing I had left in the ground. _"CRAP! I can't believe I forgot to get rid of that..."_ I think for a moment before nodding. _"Okay. They see that and should start gathering around right about n-"_

One of the people started yelling, "Hey Susan I think you will want to see this!"

I look over to her and see seemed to be rather annoyed be this, "Dan! If this is one of your jokes aga-"

Hey squawked in indignation and yelled, "Hey that shampoo and dye trick was a classic!" It looked like she was going to go over there just to rip his head off from my point of view, but he quickly continued, "That isn't what I mean though! There is writing in the ground and it is fairly fresh! Not an hour old!"

This got the attention of the rest of the group and I made my move while they were all crowding together and going over the message I had only meant for myself. I quickly moved as fast as I could without attracting attention and lay down just inside of the clearing. It wasn't five seconds later that I heard several panicked yells and one of the guys there definitely lost more than a few Man Points for how high he could get his voice, and the sound of guns being cocked.

They had surprisingly not moved and I found that odd as I tilted my head to the side to break the ice. It was the leader Susan that made the first move. I could only just hear her when she said, "O-okay people. I do-donn't know what the hell that thing i-is, but I am pr-pretty sure we know what happened t-to Nathan." She pauses here to take another breath and steady herself. "Now I don't want any of you running to the drop ships." Here there was some grumbling, but she silenced it quickly with a slightly sharper tone when she said, "Look I don't want any of you startling this thing! Because I really doubt that Jonathan and his boys can kill that thing with what they-"

Here I get their attention by yawning and I know I heard one of them whisper loudly, "Holy fuck. Do you see those teeth no won-"

Unfortunately I didn't start writing anything at that moment because I decided to watch as Susan silenced that person with a light blow to the head. I am pretty sure she only did that because she was standing right next to him, or I think she would have gone with yelling him deaf from the look on her face. She immediately continued talking in a stranded manner afterwards, "Now Dan I don't care if you get left behind at this point with that thing, but one more interruption because of anything I will throw you to that thing myself before we leave." She leered at him and said one more word to him before talking to the rest of the group. "Understood?" His rapid nodding made his stance on the situation rather obvious.

"Now we need to take it nice and sl-"Here Jonathan interrupted Susan with a voice that was just below yelling to look my way because I started to move my right front forepaw slowly to write in the ground 'I can understand you'. Now I could have sworn that I heard Dan again but apparently I didn't or Susan was too stunned from what she thought was only a dumb beast doing what could only be writing on the ground, too throw him to me while they ran for the ships.

When I looked up to see them staring at me as if I had a third head, I just wondered when I grew the second one. After ten seconds of them doing nothing I almost sighed before I remembered that it comes out more like a growl. So I slowly moved my right front forepaw and put it in the air in front of me and pulled it towards me. I repeated this motion several times before they got the idea.

"That thing wants us to move towards it…" Susan muttered.

I just nod my head to her a few times and motion for them to come forward again.

"John?" Susan called.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Can you tell me what is written in the dirt, if anything?"

He angled his gun down some and adjusted his sights. He studied the writings for a minute. A minute in which there was only the sounds of the people breathing and the slight breeze from the night air. "It says that it can understand us."

"I figured as much." Susan told Jonathan.

"Oh. And when did you come to that conclusion?" It seemed as if the rest of the group was content about letting as few people talk as possible as Jonathan and Susan continued talking.

"When the thing nodded to me when I realized that it wanted us to come forward." She responded in an oddly calm tone considering their situation, and she then did the one thing that I wanted one of them to do. She started walking towards me.

"What the hell are you doing Susan!" Jonathan yelled.

She flinched for a moment, but saw that I wasn't attacking her or moving threateningly and yelled just as loudly back, "Thanks for confirming my theory, you asshole. If this thing had wanted to attack us it already would have. Now why don't you put the guns down? I'm pretty sure that our new friend here would like that too, right?" She said that last part to me as she stopped about twenty feet in front of me.

I nodded towards her and that seemed to break the ice. The other people seemed to move towards the Pelicans at different speeds, two of them even running. I chuckled at this and that seemed to only put them on guard again as the rest decided it was a good time to run as well. _"Great I finally get through to them and I screw up."_ I look to the woman in front of me and think, _"I must admit though I am impressed by her resolve to see things through, but that could get you killed when it's unnecessary. That or she is too scared to run, after all I am pretty damn big."_ I tilt my head at her and look between her and her colleagues several times.

She looked over quickly and saw her colleagues gone and sighed. She then turned her eyes back to me and asked, "Are you wondering why I didn't run?" I nod slowly to her in response.

"Well there is no point." I move my right front forepaw into the air in front of me and move it in a sideways circle, motioning for her to continue and she does. "What I mean by that is that, if you had wanted to attack chances are you already would have done so, and I'm not mistaken when I say that you could still do so if you wanted, right?" I tilt my head to the side and think for a moment and then nod my head yes.

She lets out a slight laugh and says, "Well at least you aren't a prideful one, or at least you don't seem to be." I just do the best shrugging of my shoulders as I can.

She looks back at the drop ships for a moment and turns back to me and says in a questioning tone, "Do you mind if I get closer?"

I shake my head and watch her as she slowly approaches. She would pause to take a deep breath every few steps and continue. While she was doing this I looked to the ground where I wrote my second message, and wiped it out with my paw. Taking my time because they seem to want to take theirs I think about my situation, _"Well I honestly didn't think that I would get this far."_ I look at the woman approaching me and decided to move a little slower because I only got one chance at this. _"But I'm here. So I had better make it worth it. Now… let's see what I can get from you…"_ Once the dirt was cleared of my previous message, I took my paw and slowly curled up like I did earlier and wrote in the ground 'What year is it'. It was simple but that would tell me a lot about my situation.

As Susan approached me she looked down towards my new message and once she read it she had this confused look on her face that almost got me grinning, but I stopped that quickly. I didn't want to scare her away. She stares at me for a moment and says, "It is the year 2540. Why did you want to know that?"

I honestly couldn't help it as I started to laugh at the situation. As my laughing continued Susan backed away and started to move towards the ship. It was only when I kept going on as I was that she got an idea as to what I was doing, rolling on the ground and growling from her point of view. Still she kept moving towards the ships just in case.

"_Ohhhhhh, ohhhhh man. This couldn't be any more screwed up if I tried to shove a BS machine right up my ass."_ I finally gain control of myself and see that I am laying down on my side. I get back to laying down on my paws and quickly start writing in the dirt 'Are you at war with a group called the Covenant', or at least I was going to when I heard the engines start on the Pelicans.

I blink in confusion for all of one moment and get up quickly to try and stop them. Only to have what could only have been a bullet hit me in the side of my face. I jerk back and look to them and I see that they had packed up all of the gear while I was doing my thing and one of the people that was on top of the drop ships pointing a gun at me. I see one of the people next to him push the gun out of the way and start to yell at him. I can't tell what was being said, but I got the gist of what he meant thought.

"_No real point in trying to stop them now. All that would do is make me look like some type of vicious animal, an extremely intelligent one but still an animal in their eyes."_ I just stare at the group as they get higher into the air, and I take one last look at them and move off myself as they do.

I get to the edge of the clearing and look at it one last time, and think, _"I'll admit that that bullet hurt, but them just leaving like that hurts even more..."_ I sigh and look down at myself. _"I guess it was my fault though, I did start to laugh."_ I try to make light of the situation as I think. _"I must have one mean laugh…"_ A grin started to appear on my face, but it didn't go up all the way and it didn't stay for more than a moment.

I turn back to the forest and with one last thought I dive in, _"I __**am **__Human in Spirit."_


	3. Chapter 3 A Lonely Life

A Lonely Life

AN: Damn it took almost one hour of research to find out what I wanted, and form it into a theory concerning the Thanator quills and how they use them to sense prey. I am quite sure it would work, but I won't come out and just say what it is. If anyone dose have an idea as to what it is please PM me. I don't want it to be out on the reviews for everyone to see. At least until I unveil what it really is later in the story. I had forgotten to place the legend in earlier chapters, but it will be there from now on. Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

"Maweypeyyu" = Talking  
"_Mìftxele_" = Thinking  
**nìawnomum **= Emphasis on talking, thinking, or otherwise

It has been four hours since I set back out into the forest. I made my way slowly up to the ridge top once again, but this time it was harder because my eyes had adjusted to the bright lights that they were using to illuminate the clearing. So for about half an hour I was as blind as a bat. Shortly after that I had made my way up to the top, and waited for the sun to rise so I could get my bearings. I had noticed things though about my body that I hadn't before on my way up to the mountain top.

"_The biggest one being that the pads on the side of my head were starting to… well… I don't know what they were doing, but I was getting some type of… sense from them. Almost like a whole new type of sense that I had never had before."_ I let out a snort and continued thinking. _"Well duh Spencer, remember what the book said about Thanator? The RDA hadn't worked out how they work, but it gives a Thanator the ability to sense prey from… About nine or eight kilometers away, maybe more but I can't be sure. So that is about six and a half miles away, depending on the atmospheric conditions at least."_ I look around and see that the morning light is quickly illuminating everything around me. _"Well as far as I recall Thanator are nocturnal hunters, so-"_I let out a big yawn. _"Yup, I will need to get some sleep soon. I can think about my body later, first thing is sleep."_ I always was very protective of my sleep and that hadn't changed just because of a body switch.

I get up and look around for a stop to go down only for my gut to start growling again. _"You know what, if I need to eat this often all the time… I am going to have more than a few problems soon. Starving to death would be one of them."_ I look at my body in indignation as I think, _"How the hell did you burn through what must have been at least eleven hundred pounds of flesh!"_ I sit on my haunches and ponder on how that would be possible, but could only come to one conclusion, _"This body must be brand spanking new… So I will be needing to eat quite a bit here over the next few days. That or I will be eating like this all the time, I really hope not though. That would create a lot of problems."_

I decide that I can't do anything about it until I know for sure what my new eating patterns are going to be like, and that will take a few days to stabilize. I remember that I had just remembered the Thanator extrasensory capability. _"Yes, now whatever that is will really help me in my quest for food."_ With that I try to flare up the pads, but I end up moving the queue instead something that I had completely forgotten about. I try again only to move both of the queues. _"Well if I can't get to those I might as well learn how to use these for the moment, but first one more shot at moving the pads."_

I lay down and start to calm self and slowly let myself go. It takes a while with me having to do this in a new body, but I accomplish it eventually. When I finally did it was then that something happened. It is hard to explain, it is like I am seeing what I could only describe as currents through the air, and ridding those currents are… well I don't know, but it was then I noticed something else. I jerk up right in surprise as I saw to my left about fifty to sixty feet away was what I could only describe as an elephant, but completely different when I saw it through that… 'sense'.

_"It was like it was covered in glowing wires or something like that."_ I scrunch my face up in confusion and think back to what I 'saw'. _"There was more now that I think about it. In fact-"_I get up and move to my left about ten feet, and right their hidden under some leaves is some type of lizard that jumped right away into the underbrush. I just sit down and look on in amazement as it scurries off. _"Hooolllllyyyy shit… Whatever this extrasensory ability is… I am in love with it."_ I look over in the direction that I saw the elephant in and lick my chops. _"If that doesn't fill me up I don't know what would on this planet."_

My decision made I slowly make my way over to where I 'saw' the elephant. One thing though, when I got there, it was gone. I lay down and curl my front forepaws inside on themselves so I could rub what I could of my head. _"Of course it wouldn't be there you idiot. Elephants have very good hearing. It probably knew I was coming its way right when I started and booked it."_ I sigh and get a determined look on my face as I try to make use of my new body's capabilities.

Of course I didn't know how long it took me to get into it the last time so I took a stick and tried to stab it into the ground, but I broke it instead. I grumble for a little bit, and I find another one. This time I take one of my claws and poke a hole into the ground and carefully put it in. Once I had it where I wanted it I pushed some dirt into the hole around the stick and packed it down. Then I went around looking for a twig. Now since I was in a rain forest there was no shortage of twigs, but picking them up when you are as big as me and not breaking them… the finer things in life when you're the size of a human.

I pause in my temporary Quest for the Twig, and sit down to think about what I could do to make this easier. _"Well I could all ways push the twig along… that would be so wrong though. I mean who has ever heard of a Thanator pushing around a __**twig**__ of all things."_ I take a moment to look around and I notice something in the corner of my eyes. I look over only to just miss it as it dodges out of my vision. I do this three more times before I realize what it is. I lay down and cover my eyes with my front forepaws and think, _"I thought I was an idiot before… Ohhhh… I rue the day that I pissed off the wrong being."_ I had been chasing my own queue, yes I felt like a dog chasing its tail, and I didn't like it.

I tried to sit there and quietly let the time pass, but my gut had other ideas. So with some more grumbling I got up and **pushed** a twig where I wanted it. I put it right where the shadow was on the ground, but I only realized now that the spot that the shadow fell from the stick I put in the ground, was where the shadow is falling from some leaves in the trees. I just stared at it for a while; I wasn't really thinking anything, just staring. Then I got up and moved elsewhere.

It took roughly an hour before I was willing to try the experiment again, but it didn't matter as I had found a few Chimpanzees that wouldn't stop howling at me for some reason. So I took some frustration out on them, and guess what. I felt **much** better afterwards, fuller to.

_"You know."_ I was saying to myself as I sat down. _"As satisfying as it was to kill and eat them. I need to be more careful how I show my anger. I could really hurt someone if I'm not careful."_ I let out a snort as I think back to my encounter with the search party. _"Hmmmm. That's right the Silverbacks and the bigger ape species are close to extinction if I'm not mistaken, at least in this world. Better not to worry about it. If I do, I'll only guilt myself into an early death bed."_ I take a moment to gather myself, and once again try to go into that 'other vision'.

I breathe in and out, slowing my breathing down a little bit every time, and eventually I focus on the quills attached to the back of my head. This part takes even longer, but I get it eventually. When I do it wasn't a sudden world of flowing wire and light, but it came to me slowly and I let it.

It took a while, but once I was where I was before I couldn't help but notice everything around me. I couldn't see details like color, and for whatever reason I could only see things that were inanimate when the glowing… stuff came into contact with it, the view was amazing. Completely out there, and it was then that I noticed something. _"It is as if… I don't know. It feels like I'm not seeing everything I could… At least my body is feeling that way… Weird, but I shouldn't ignore it. Next time I do this I will work on that some."_ Before I move out of this vision I look around and see that the closest animals worth eating are an elephant and some things that look like they might be Antelope. With that known I slowly let this way of viewing things fade, and then it almost felt like I woke up when I opened my eyes.

I feel like I had been laying down for hours. As I slowly get up and stretch, while doing so I feel popping all over my body. _"I guess that with the body being so new and all, it just isn't used to staying still for so long. That view though…"_ I shake my head as I realize why almost nothing escaped a Thanator alive. _"There is practically nothing alive that I wouldn't be able to find."_ I realized something else as I finished stretching, and sit down. _"That was what was wrong! I wasn't sensing as far as I could, and my body knows that, but my mind doesn't. Now I do though, so I just might, might be able to do something about it. Another thing I will need to do, is see about shortening the time it takes to use that… way of 'viewing' things, still one thing at a time, so let's get some sleep!"_ I looked around again and got up and started to look for a place to sleep.

It took almost an hour but I found a well shaded place that even had a small river near by it. The only thing was that I had to drive away antelope like things. It was pretty easy, all I had to do was walk near them. I did manage to catch and eat one though, it was only because I pushed it towards a ridge by accident. So it didn't have enough time to turn, and it crashed into it and spent the two second lead it had on me getting up. I caught it easy enough after that. I wasn't hungry, but I knew I would be when I woke up, so this way my body would have less to complain about. Once done I moved back to the clearing and quickly cleaned myself up. It was a little harder because I had forgotten to do so after eating the chimps, but it was taken care of and I went to sleep.

When I woke up I felt much better, but as I had thought I was hungry. I wasn't famished, but still hungry all the same. _"It's a good thing I got that last meal in."_ I finally open my eyes to find that it was night time. I look up to the sky only to see trees. _"Well I did pick this place because there wasn't so much damned sun."_

I get up and stretch, the popping was there but not as bad this time. _"Still pretty bad though, oh well, it's not going to change until I really work this body. __**That**__ won't happen until I can run though, and to do that I need to get out of these trees. Fortunately with this body I will be able to cover __**a lot**__ of ground. First I need to know which way to go."_ I look around quickly and I realize that I hadn't had a single drop of water since I had gotten this body. _"Probably got all the water I needed from the things I have eaten, but still it is defiantly catching up to me."_ And it was. My mouth was dry, and I had a slight headache. _"Good thing that I stopped near that river. Not really big enough to be a river… Meh."_

I walk over to the water and stare at it while thinking, _"How many types of bacteria and viruses are in this water. Well… I wouldn't be able to make it to the closest source of clean water even if I knew where it was… Sooooooooo… Guaranteed death by dehydration or possible death by drinking water that has an unknown number of bacteria and such in it?"_ I think on something for a moment and then come to a realization. _"If I was going to be sick, I already would be! The animals that I had eaten were carrying how many bacteria and such? So why haven't I caught something?Hmmmmmmmm. That means that Thanator have a very powerful immune system naturally… or whatever put me here gave me some type of super immune system… That or whatever has infected me hasn't taken effect just yet…"_

I stare at my reflection in the water for a moment longer and think, _"I was never one to worry too much about these type of things when I could do nothing about it anyway."_ And I bent down to take a drink. It actually tasted good to, it helps that I haven't had a drink of water in for. I pause in my drinking as I think about how long it has been since I had gotten here, _"Let's see… I arrive during day time, and I took a nap for some time and woke up just before night. Then I had that adventure with Susan and the gang. Next… what was next? Damn Spencer I know you don't pay attention to a lot of things but this is ridiculous."_ I shake my head and bend down to finish drinking water.

I take a few minutes doing so and feel almost bloated when I am finished. I go to lay down, but it was then that I had the strongest urge to use the bathroom. _"Oh shit, literally this time!"_ I move stiffly into the brush as far as I could, but I didn't get as far as I would have liked to. I did my business and… well let's just say that I will be more careful about it in the future, but I did feel much better afterwards. So I head back to the water and go about twelve feet out and lay down and clean myself off, as well as I could anyways. I soaked for about ten minutes after I scrubbed what I could, when something chomped down onto my rear left thigh and started to thrash around. This hurt like hell to and I was very sure that whatever is biting me was penetrating my armored flesh, or at least it felt like it.

I almost go under the water but I quickly brace myself and start to try shaking it off, as it turns out though another one came in. I know this because I was suddenly bit on my rear left foreleg. And started to thrash as well, I decided that I wasn't going to end here and with one move I stated to pull myself and the two things biting me towards the bank. Whatever was biting released quickly after that and I got out of the water quickly, and was I pissed, _"Okay you little fuckers, time to die!"_ I looked and even though it was dark I could see two retreating hippopotamus and I knew right away that if I didn't deal with them now I would never have any peace. So I take one deep breath and let out one loud and long roar. I watch as they seem to shrink away from me, and I grin. I made my point, but now I needed to cement it in the minds of the forest animals.

"_After all if you're going to live in the forest as an animal you had better make yourself at the top of the food chain quickly or the animals will start to think you aren't as a big a threat as you seem." _So with that thought in mind I move into the water swiftly and without any hesitation. _"Show no mercy because they weren't going to show you any."_ I find it a lot harder to move in the water than I would have liked, but I am okay with it because the water only goes above my head in the middle of the river. I watched as they all retreated to the other side of the river, and I decide to test exactly how long I can hold my breath. I take one deep breath and hold it for five hundred and twenty one seconds. I grin as I let out another deep growl while I think, _"So that is something like six minutes… That should be enough time, but half that to account for my activity. Hope its enough…"_

I breathe in and out for about a minute before I dive under the water. "_This body won't be good at swimming, but if I use my tail…"_ And I was right. My tail allowed me to push myself quickly through the water, but only forward and it was rather tiring to do so as well. I pushed myself towards them, but they must have been able to tell because they were trying to scatter, but I was faster in a race in the water, much faster.

I got to the other side and caught one charging at me with my front forepaws and I quickly shoved my right and left back forepaws, claws first, right into its side before it could try to retaliate. I must have hit something vital or it might have been the fact that I ripped what I could out when I pulled my paws out, because it fell limp in my grasp. I let it go and moved to the surface, which was only a foot above me. I took a quick breath of air and looked for my next target. It turns out that I didn't have to as I was attacked from behind by one of them. I tried turning around to throw it off, but almost all of my momentum was lost because of the water.

"_Fine how do you like this!"_ I stand up and take my tail a slam it into the thing biting my back, this seemed to work. The first blow caught it on its lower back, it only increased the pressure with its jaws. The second blow caught it on it mid back area, it loosened for a moment before it once again bite down harder. It was really hurting now so I hit it as hard as I could and managed to catch it on its head, and I heard a loud cracking sound that must have been it skull. It fell limp and felt it fall off of me.

Before I could recover I was attacked again, but this time it looked like they were trying to swarm me. So I quickly dived into the ones in front of me. My plan was rather simple and it actually tied into my gaming experience. Whenever I was surrounded in any of the Halo games when I played it pretty much meant instant death. So I developed a plan that worked on most of the competitors that plan being make a hole and retreat. It was rather simple but far harder to do when you are restricted by the use of a joy stick and limited by controllers. You can only do so much, you can't weave through you targets, striking at them with a knife. That would do three things, limit their field of fire, make it so there are less bullets coming at me, and make it so you only have to fight one or two of them to get out, only if you're quick about it though.

So that was my plan. Make a hole and killing what you have to do so, and fight the rest on my own terms. To do that though I needed to be faster than them and if I didn't have my tail I would be slower, but since I do…

I quickly shoot towards one that is coming from the middle of the river. I am to go right by it and as I am passing I reach out with both of my left side forepaws and stab them into it. I catch it on its fleshy nose area and use my back left forepaw to grab right at the neck area. Using my paws like fishing hooks, I hold on to it and let my momentum carry my claws down it side. Just as I pas I turn around to see it thrashing weakly, and the other ones starting to hesitate. So I press them and with one more breath I dive under the water, and move for the one at my ten o'clock. I catch it around the back end as it was running away. It tried reach back to get me with its jaws again, but my grip was to strong and it only ended up tearing flesh off of its self as it tried to get away.

I decide to let this one suffer. _"Let its cries of anguish show everything in this jungle there is a bigger animal on the block."_ I pick it up as best I can I headed to the river side, using the water to help keep it afloat as it cries grew weaker the longer it struggled . By the time I got to the river side it had basically died and I angled myself so I can start to drag it out of the water. Once the body was about ten feet away from river side, I let go of the body and started to take a deep breath. _"And let __**my**__ cry of victory know who won this fight!"_ With that I let out the breath I had been holding in. It was loud, it was long, and I was heard. Once I was done there wasn't any noise being made in my hearing range.

I pull the body a little more away from the water and I started to eat it. The meat was a lot tougher, but only just a little when it was my jaws rending the flesh away. I took a few more bites out of it before my body said it was okay. I sit down and think back over the fight, _"I can't believe what just happened…"_ I snort. _"Well if I hadn't been the one to actually fight I wouldn't believe me either, but"_ I look down at my paws, feel **my** body as it is coming down from the adrenalin rush, and my heart as it slows down from the fight I went through.

Then I felt the gashes in my hind quarters, and the torn flesh along my back and I had only one thing to think about that, _"Despite me hurting I'm glad that I got into that fight. It showed me I'm far from invincible. Still though… tearing through four hippos just like that… Daammnnnnnnnnn. Still I had better be careful all the same, I don't have a way to treat this wounds. So they might become infected."_ It was a little unnerving but now I know why wild animals would rather avoid other animals rather than fight them when they don't have to. I knew why they did before, but I am learning the lesson the hard way now.

I get up and head towards the water bank and think as I do so, _"No running for me any time soon, but back to how long I have been here. Well I left off at Susan and the gang… Ah! I got it now, I just wandered off into the forest and worked on my extrasensory ability. Got a few meals along the way, and then got a bed side snack before heading off to sleep. Then I woke up and now I'm here! Sooo. I'd say about two days roughly."_ I nodded my head and decided to work on my extrasensory ability. Before I did I had a stray thought come through my mind about being able to talk.

I blinked a few times and just sheepish sigh, shaking my head I think, _"I can't believe I forgot that. Well I had better work on that some, but I had better make sure I am alone."_ I knew that the only way I could realistically 'clear' the area so to speak, is by using my extrasensory ability. My senses of smell and hearing while they were developed enough to do so… I didn't have the experience to use them that way, so I went to my fall back.

_"Well I had better get to it. After all it is more than a little strange that they haven't come after me just yet. Then again they don't need to worry about losing me because of my large heat signature they will be able to track me easy from orbit, so I know I will see them eventually. I just hope they come peacefully, I don't want any trouble. They might bring it though so I had better be prepared, but I can plan Operation: Avoid Capture by Weapons later. Right now I need to work on this."_

I nod to myself and shuffle in to a more comfortable position, and work myself back into what I am now calling Flow Trance.

It has been about a week since I got into the fight with the hippos, and I had been following a schedule. I would wake up stretch and head to the river and get a drink. I take a moment and lay down and start to work on getting into Flow Trance quicker. I couldn't tell whether or not I was shaving time off because it would take longer sometimes to get into it. Still I persisted and tried to keep track of the time by the shadows. Once I was in it, I would experiment for a while and then look for something to eat. Once found I would head to that location as quietly as I could, but I have yet to catch something unaware of my presence, I am working on it though. I usually have to use the Flow Trance once or twice more, but I end up hunting a different animal when I do. The reason being that I don't do it quick enough.

After I spend hours trying to catch something the moon is usually past its highest point. I have yet to catch something before that time. After that I spend the 'quality' time in the forest I take the rest of the night looking for the clearing I met Susan and the gang. It took me three days to do so, but I did it. I was going there in hopes that they would come back, but they didn't. I would then spend the rest of the time their working in my ability to talk or my Flow Trance. The Trance was coming along **far** better than the talking, which I have made no progress in. While I hadn't managed to make much head way into getting into it faster I had managed to extend the range by several hundred feet every time I go into it. After spending a few hours there I would go hunting if I was hungry, but if not I would head back to the river side and settle down for the day.

I had found out a few things too. First is that my body finally started to calm down when it come to food five days ago. I noticed that I didn't need to eat as much and now I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday's meal. I feel fine as long as I have water a few times a day. While I am happy for that, I noticed that my body started to… well change in small ways. I noticed it first with the bites.

At first they would itch like crazy, and I couldn't scratch them either. For fear that my own claws would open the wounds or even make them worse. So to my surprise when I woke up on the second night into the week, they weren't itching. It took me awhile, but I found out that they had healed up, I couldn't believe it. Those were stab wounds, and they just healed up like that in less than twenty four hours! As I had with most things in this venture that I had been forced upon, I tried my best to take it in stride and move on. It was just another one of those things that I could do little to nothing about.

Then however, my eyesight started to change. It was slowly changing so I seemed to be able to zoom in on things, and is still improving. Colors started to become a little duller, but that stopped three days in. My night vision as well was changing, before I had to be out in the dark for thirty minutes to an hour before I would be able to see anything, but now it is slowly becoming more and more potent. I only have to be in the dark for about twenty to thirty minutes now for my eyes to adjust. It is still improving, and I hope it keeps doing so.

I had been staying in this area in hopes that they would send out some search parties, but so far no luck. "_I know the problem isn't being able to track me, they probably got a satellite up there watching me right now. I think they are just trying to find a way to 'capture' me with few casualties as possible, trying to get more information on me by observing me, or getting some heavy hitters to do the job for me."_ I think about the group that came after me though and realize that it was a group of civilians that I introduced myself to. _"That would explain why. They are probably debating what to do with me so much that it is like the Republicans and Democrats going at it over health care or some such."_ A rather amusing thought I must admit, but at the same time extremely disturbing considering that the last time they ran into an alien species that had intelligent capability to them it was the Covenant.

_"Grrreaaat. They just might be trying to decide to whack me off or not."_ It wasn't a very comforting thought all considering. They would be able to kill me if they wanted to without any issues, no problem. And with that 'comforting' thought in mind I decided that I will leave this area tomorrow. _"If it comes down to them hunting me down, I would rather be outside of the forest, where I will be able to run at full speed."_ I hadn't been able to run even close to it and I could tell. _"I want to test out the limits of this body before they decide to kill me or not."_ So with that in mind I decided to sit down and try to get into my Trance quicker, and this time I had motivation I didn't before. Death.

I knew that it was unrealistic, but I wanted to be able to drop into Flow Trance and a drop of a dime. Even us it while I am moving. Before they come after me as well, but I knew it would take months or even years to do so. _"But that doesn't mean I won't give it my best shot. After all there is only one other alternative…"_ I didn't have any real way to keep time, so I judged how long it took mentally. The problem with that is that I usually lost track of the time while trying to meditate. Concentrating on that while trying to get into the Trance was rather hard, so I just tried to keep it up as long as possible before losing count.

It was the next day and I was getting up and stretching. _"Well tonight is the night time to leave this forest, or at least this section of it."_ I had decided to head eastward rather than west, to symbolize new beginnings. I was getting ready to set out when my stomach decided to say hi.

"_You aren't the best of company you know that?"_ I thought to myself while looking down at my gut, and look out over the river. _"I admit it is beautiful out here… but… would it have killed whatever brought me here to give me __**some **__kind of company?"_ I was use to being around my brothers all the time, and while they were infinitely frustrating at times. They were still family. _"It's getting rather lonely out here isn't it Spencer?"_

What I didn't know though was while the politicians were 'discussing' my fate. Others would be moving in to claim what they thought would be the ultimate hunt.

So when I settled down and brought myself into Flow Trance, I found an elephant less than what seemed to be five hundred feet downstream, drinking some water. I quickly get out of it and moved to go get something to eat, but if I had kept going further out and stayed in for a few minutes. I would have noticed that there was a boat moving up the river.

And on that boat were five men, except they weren't carrying guns, but explosives.


	4. Chapter 4 My New Life

My New Life

AN: This one took so long to get out because I wanted to see how later chapters would turn out before I got too far ahead of myself, and only to have it turned out bad for the story. Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

"Maweypeyyu" = Talking  
"_Mìftxele_" = Thinking  
**nìawnomum **= Emphasis on talking, thinking, or otherwise  
:Time is power: = Written dialog

* * *

I often contemplate my life, and I have found that I have gained a very good understanding of myself as a result. I had over the course of my life gained a lot of patience; I wouldn't attack someone for no reason, I actually didn't **like** hurting people, and I was an all around good person, at least I was on the outside. In side I was struggling with a side of me that wanted to lash out at everything, wanted to cause pain and suffering, wanted for no other reason than to see the reactions of the people I hurt, make them bleed. It isn't an experience I would wish upon anyone, especially since whenever I see someone, I hear a little voice in the back of my head saying 'I wonder what that persons face would look like if I did…' but I keep it quiet enough that I almost never have to worry about it.

I have been dealing with it for more than a decade, and I have never broken down and let it out. I have the will power to deal with it, but I also knew that chances are that I would eventually snap at some point. So I made a promise to myself, that whoever finally met that side of me… they would deserve it, and they would regret what they did before I killed them.

* * *

I headed down the river and once I got about half way there I stopped. I looked at the river and made my decision. _"Let's see if I can manage an ambush here…"_ The river was deeper here and wider too. So I move into the river slowly. I got just outside of the middle, and took one last look down river too see that the elephant was still there. I knew that it wouldn't be there for long so I needed to make this quick. I take one deep breath and start to make my way down river.

I poked my head up every once in a while to get fresher air and look for the elephant. Granted I didn't need to get more air, but why not get more? So I got about fifty feet from it when I poked my head up one last time and made my way to the ambush point. It took me almost ten minutes to get here and I didn't want to screw it up, I saw it now through the water and got ready to attack. I was just inches away from the surface of the water and about fifteen feet away from my next meal. Despite this I took a moment before I pounced to think, _"If Thanator thought they had an advantage on Pandora… Earth would be heaven for them."_ My dark hide allows me to be hidden far more effectively here on Earth, than it would allow on Pandora.

I set my paws on the ground and crouch down, taking me slowly further underwater. I slowly make my way closer and have to stop ten feet away. _"Just avoid the tusks and I should be okay._ _One of those gouges me and I quite sure even my increased healing level won't save me."_ That in mind I brace myself and jumped to its right, scaring it away from the opening that it came from.

The elephant reared back in horror as I emerge from the river in an explosion of water. It turned to its left and tried running, but it was running towards the trees that it couldn't get through. When I landed it had only made it ten feet into its run, and unfortunately for it I could make that in one jump easy. So I aimed about five feet to its left and I jumped. I was trying to drive it to the water, and make it waste energy. That way it wouldn't struggle as much when I killed it.

Just as I jumped into the air though I heard something to my left on the river, it was familiar but I ignored it in favor of my new meal. So it was a complete shock and absolute horror to me to see what could only be a rocket of some kind, pass just a foot in front of my face and fly into the forest.

As I fell to the ground I knew without even thinking about it, that if one of those hit me chances were I was dead. So right when I hit the ground I push myself down in a crouch and jump right into the forest, ignoring the elephant as I passed it. It was a good thing to, as the elephant took a rocket that was meant for me. Within moments there was three more flying around me, and one hit a tree and exploded just to my left.

The explosion pushed me into a tree. I gasped in pain as I thought, _"What the hell? Was that a shrapnel bomb?"_ I look to my left side to see bleeding all over, but what drew my attention was my left back foreleg. _"FUCK!"_ It was what took most of the damage. I tried to put weight on to it, but it was too damaged. _"I can't worry about that now. If I stay any longer they will be on top of me!"_ I start moving, but with every step it was like someone was hitting me with a sledge hammer all over my left side. I had to bring my left back foreleg up and hold it there, but that only put more pressure on my other left foreleg. Still I kept moving, it was the only option I had at this point.

"_That rocket did more damage than I thought… My left lung feels like its burning and I am bleeding far more than I would like. So that DAMNED missile probably hit some of my bigger veins or arteries… If it hit something too big…"_ I put the thought out of my mind as I noticed I was slowing down because of the pain. So I pushed past it, but the harder I went the more painful it became.

* * *

I was shot at twice more in the ensuing chase. Fortunately they were shooting while running so they didn't come close enough to do damage, but they reminded me to keep going. _"At this rate they are going to catch up to me in a minute or two."_ I glance up at the moon to see it has been close to an hour since the chase began. _"I need a way to lose them… or get behind them…"_ The problem was that my body was starting to give out on me, and only kick it into gear when I was shot now._ "I'm being worn down…"_ I decided to give it one last push. Nearby was the clearing that I met Susan and her gang that was a good a place as any to die.

I knew I was dying, I could feel it. I was losing too much blood because of me pushing myself, and the damage done to my lung… I can't feel that part of my chest any more, and every few seconds I hack up blood on the run. So yes I knew that chances were that I was going to die, but I wanted to die on my terms, **not** theirs. I wanted to die with some dignity, not like some animal in a chase, but facing them without fear. I didn't fear death, and once it embraces me I will embrace it as well. Nothing can live forever, and I'm no exception. I accepted that long ago.

_"Who knows, maybe it isn't that bad?"_ I grinned as I finally got to the clearing. My body felt like one massive throb of pain, it was hard to breathe anymore, and my vision was coming and going now. I could hear them coming, _"Thirty maybe forty seconds?"_ I think back on my life and wonder what could have been. _"It was a good run Spencer…"_ I knew that even if I somehow escaped them now I would die from my aggravated wounds now. I lay down in the middle of the clearing and look to where I knew they would be coming from and think, _"No real point in thinking what could have been."_ I let out a pained chuckle as I thought. _"Who knows, maybe I go back to my human body if this one dies?"_

I start to lose consciousness, and the last thing I heard was a loud roar. Then all I saw was darkness and all that I could hear was silence.

* * *

I saw flashes and images of my life, almost like I was reviewing it. I then saw something. I don't know what it was, but it almost seemed to call to me. Calling me forward and it was slowly becoming more and more desperate, but I didn't want to move. I just wanted to stay still and rest.

Then I felt pain. It was all over my body, I looked for what was calling me, but it was gone now. I then opened my eyes, expecting to see one of those men standing over me. _"I bite his damned head off if he is."_

Instead I opened them to what could only be described as a large open tent. I heard voices, one of them yell about some foam or something like that, another was right in front of me. I could tell it wasn't one of the people chasing me. They weren't wearing white clothing, but this person was. I saw him or her, I couldn't tell, look down at me. Their expression would have been comical if I wasn't in this situation. He or she started to yell something about it coming around. Moments later I started to go back to unconsciousness.

The next time I woke up, I saw what could only have been trees. The problem was that I was in the air above them. I blinked and could only think, _"What the… How?"_ I looked up and I saw a Pelican, I started to panic, but I felt something on my neck move and I started to once again lose consciousness.

* * *

The next dreams I had were my normal kind for me, everywhere and nowhere at the same time, never staying in one place for more than a few minutes at a time, and I was always doing something.

I dreamed for sometime far longer than I usually do, and I eventually took notice. I could, if I wanted to, pull myself out of my dreams and wake up most of the time. On the other hand I usually enjoy those dreams enough to stay for awhile, but I always wake up. So I found it odd that I hadn't woken just yet, and I tried waking myself. I couldn't at first; it was like something was trying to keep me there, but eventually I won out.

The first thing that I saw was white. I then felt pain in my lower body, around my hind legs. I let out a pained groan as I looked, and saw several people looking at me in horror, and my left backside was cut open. I almost attacked them, everything in me told me told, but I saw where they were operating. It was an area where some of the shrapnel hit me. I lay back down and think, _"So… I am here now… but wha-"_ I once again felt a slight pain in my neck and I sighed as I lost consciousness once again.

* * *

I didn't dream this time. I was floating in darkness, at least it seemed that way to me. This continued for some time, it was peaceful and restful. I enjoyed it a lot, the quiet that is, but as all things do this eventually came to an end.

I opened my eyes and looked around. It was a simple room, or at least it looked like one. Looking closer at the wall I realized it wasn't a wall at all, but a sheet or something like that. I tried to get up, but it turned out I was tied down, well chained really. I had one chain for each of my legs, and they were all staked into the ground. That made me a little angry I must admit. I didn't like being tied, well chained in this case, down, and if I can I will get out of it. _"First thing first though, how is my body?"_ I start to move my muscles and find that they are okay, but **very** sore. I grimaced as I thought, _"Shit. Like this I would never be able to run willingly… Unless my life is in danger that is."_ That last part comes out a little morbidly in my mind, but I had just survived being hunted.

_"Thinking of which, how did I survive in the first place?"_ I look around and the answer was rather obvious really. _"Now did they rescue me for some type of political stunt or did __**they **__send in those people to attack me, so they could 'conveniently' come in and rescue me?"_ I honestly wouldn't put it past them to do so. An unknown animal appears suddenly in the middle of Africa and asks about the date? _"They probably think I am some type of alien that has crashed on Earth or something like that. Hmmmm."_ I turn my head towards the flaps as they open only to come face to face with some doctor or nurse, I couldn't tell.

We stared at each other for a while and I decided this would be a rather convenient was of me testing them. I start to wiggle my legs a little, but he jumps back some in response. I stop and start to look in between him and the stuff tying me down. I did five times, but, _"He was either to stupefied by me being awake or was just too stupid to understand. I really hope not though, because I might be in his care…"_ I shake my legs again and that is when I realize that my one leg was just fine, or it felt fine at least.

I stop trying to get them to do something about my binds and look at my left back foreleg, as best as I can at least. I was laying on my left side, and that was when an idea pops into my mind. It might scare the crap out of them, but at the moment I didn't care. _"Serves them right for chaining me down of all things."_ It was a rather large disappointment in my mind, but there was little to do about it for now.

I shift my body weight and try to turn onto my right side. It doesn't work the first time, but it did seem to get that person in front of me finally moving. It's just that he turned around and started yelling about me escaping. _"That's not good, better make this quick."_ With time in mind I twist even harder and the chains loosen more each time. I do I two more times and the stakes finally come out of the ground.

I decide that while it would be funny as all hell to see their faces as I escape, it wouldn't be worth the bullets I would get in response. So I just sit down or at least I try to. The ceiling only went high enough have about eight feet of room. Not enough for me to sit down, but I didn't care. So I figure getting just outside of this tent would be okay. By the time I get out there for whatever reason I have a rather large amount of guns pointing at me. Even a warthog and it is equipped with a gauss turret as well.

I stare at them for about ten seconds and think, _"I think that they might not be very happy with me for some reason… Okay what can I do? Hmmmmm… Ah! I just act like there is no problem a-"_One of the marines in the front stepped forward and yelled out at me, "Whatever the hell you are! Go back in the tent or we **will** open fire upon you! We know you understand us!"

I stared at them for one last moment at them and quickly moved to write something in the ground. One of the marines must have been a 'little' trigger happy because he shot me. Fortunately it hit my shoulder which was one of my more armored areas. Unfortunately they seemed to be prepared for that seeing as it pierced my hide. It hurt like a bitch, and I clenched my jaw down in pain, but I knew if I showed aggression it would only take one shot from that gauss hog to kill without any issues. I ignore them as the person in charge yells for them to hold their fire.

I let out a big sigh and bend back down and write out: I am a Thanator first of all, and my name is Spencer. I thank you for saving me, but do **not** shoot at me again please, or I will react in kind, even if it results in my death. That aside I would like the chains off of me, oh and by the way I have no affiliation with the Covenant. So please don't put me in that camp.

In order for me to write that down I had to slowly back into the tent and once I was done I just moved the rest of the way in. It was rather quiet for awhile, when one of them called for some thermal gear to watch me, while someone went to check what I wrote down in the ground.

No one came inside of the tent for almost an hour, and by that point I was seriously considering popping my head out to say hi. _"It is getting boring here…"_ My family knew that I could be, as they put it, annoying when I'm bored. I personally think that I am mischievous, but that isn't here or there. So I continued thinking, _"Well… what to do? I could try counting the seconds as they pass by…"_ I almost groan in annoyance, but it was then I got an idea. _"Why didn't I think of this before? Damn it all, I could be finding out what they are doing right now…"_ So with that I settle down to get into my Flow Trance when some people announce they are going to enter.

_"I personally don't know why they announced why they were entering. I have made it clear that I don't want to attack anyone."_ I watch as a male enters. He has brown hair, and seems to be in his forties, but with the medical technology they have in this world it would be hard to tell. He brought a chair with him and set it up, I watch him carefully. He never exposed his back to me as he set the foldable chair up. Always in control of himself, and I couldn't tell whether or not he was afraid. He gets settled down and just looks at me, studying me.

I look right back and decided that I will let him start the conversation, after all I couldn't, very well at least. As it turns out I didn't have to wait for as long as I thought.

"Spencer. Correct?" While he did address me with my name, he did so in such a way that it almost came out as an insult, but without many options I just nod my head yes. "Well we have a device for you to use so you can write on it, but until then I would like to ask you some yes and no questions. Is that okay with you?"

I had figured that they would send someone in to 'ask' me some questions. I was one hundred percent sure that this person was from ONI as well. _"Which section though? Doesn't matter at the moment, they want something from me and I will be willing to bet that that old bitch at the head is behind this."_ If there was one person that I would be all too happy to kill on the humans side, it would be her. But I also knew that I didn't have much of a choice at the moment. So I nod my head.

He smiled and said, "Well let's start with something simple." I had realized that they were trying to play me with the good friendly act, but what they didn't know was that I already knew enough of their secrets that they would kill me without a second thought. Some of those secrets would destroy the U.N.S.C.s credibility, and if this went south… Who knows…

"Do you know how you got here?" I have ideas to be honest, but when it comes down to it I don't really know. So I shake my head no.

"Okay, how about this. Do you know how long you have been here?" Right away I knew this one was dangerous. If they think I have been here a long time they might go to conclusions that would be rather annoying to say the least. I nod my head yes.

"Okay. Was it longer than a year?" I answer no with a shake of my head. "Six months?" Shake my head. "A month?" Once again no. "How about a two weeks?" I shrug my shoulders to answer I don't know. He looks at me dubiously and says, "You don't know?" I nod yes.

A shout came from outside. "Sir we are here now." I look to the flaps as my would be interrogator turned his head to the side slightly, and called back, "Come on in." What entered was an odd pedestal like thing, and on top of it was something that almost resembled an ipad.

"You will use this to write down what you want to say and it will appear on this one." He said holding up a smaller pad in his left hand. "To write on it just curl your hand into a fist and write with a knuckle, it is all that we have to work with."

I nodded my head and reached for the pad, to write: What did you do to me while I was under?:

"Our surgeons only went in to remove the shrapnel."

:Can I get these chains taken off?:

He frowned, but it wasn't there for long. "Unfortunately until we know whether you are a threat or not, we won't remove them for our own safety."

I knew that I was quite lucky really. With them fighting a war with an alien race, they won't be stupid with me. :I will accept that, but my patience will only go so far. So don't be surprised if I try to remove them myself eventually. I have done nothing to your people and I am treated like a criminal, just consider that.:

I could tell he didn't like my response, and I liked his even less. "For our soldiers protection we have given them the okay to shoot to kill if you try to leave or escape your chains."

I was quite angry. I glared at him while I thought, _"THAT is the way you want to play huh?"_ :Know this HUMAN if you do not stop treating me like an animal you WILL lose a resource that would change the course of your war, and no amount of prodding or torture will make me give up my secrets. So stop with the bull shit and start treating me like an equal. I even know WHY the Covenant started this war...: I let out a growl that he probably felt in his bones to remind him just what he is dealing with. The last part I wrote down to let them think whether or not it would be worth being more courteous to me.

His voice had a slight tremble to it when he said, "Oh and how would you know that, and who is to say we already don't know?"

I stared at him for a moment and started laughing I couldn't help it. _"Ohhh man if they knew what I did…"_ It came back to me in full force despite the fact that there is around twenty guns pointed at me now. I heard my would be interrogator tell them to hold their fire, but only just over my laughter.

I got control of myself after a few minutes and heard him ask, "I assume you were laughing?"

I couldn't help the grin that came over me when I wrote down :Yes I was, I hadn't laughed like that in a long time thank you. Oh and by the way, I know for a fact that you DON'T know why or how this war was started. At least you don't know their side of it.: Watching his face I noticed that it twitched in several places and I thought, _"They either sent a newbie to do this or he is straining his self control."_

He took a moment as he visibly calmed himself and then said, "Is there anything else that you know?" I will give the man credit, only the slightest shreds of anticipation made it through his façade.

The grin was still on my face as I wrote :I know many things. Why don't I mention a few to you? A ship that has three of your biggest assets that has been missing for years, the knowledge of a super secret location that may or may not have been discovered on a planet you call Reach, but really how many of those are there? Also something that has to do with something called Orion…: That last one was the one that would get the most attention. I knew that, but I had to make a point. One that would **really** get the attention of the higher ups, and if I knew the U.N.S.C. right, well I won't be here for much longer, hopefully not in chains either.

Unfortunately for me I didn't get to see his face as I put those things down on the pad, but the sound of him as he tried to remove some spit that went down the wrong tub was… Oh. So. **Satisfying**… It was very amusing to watch him get up stiffly and out of the tent with something a little faster than a walk. I am very sure that he was going to report to his superiors, and I would be out of here within six or seven hours. I noticed that he stopped and I heard him all but yell at someone to get the shackles off of me, and for guards to be posted at all times, extremely alert, and to get me some food. When he mentioned food I heard my stomach growl long and hard. _"Don't worry you'll be getting food soon."_

It took about ten minutes for someone to get the chains off, and if I'm not mistaken five of those were spent arguing over who would do it. It was rather funny really, but quickly delved into world of bribery, and when that didn't work I think they did rock paper scissors competition. _"Reminds me of when my brothers and I would argue over who changes the cat box."_ It wasn't long after that a woman came in. You could tell she wasn't keen on being here, so I decided to play nice since I had already gotten to have my fun earlier. So I layed down and tried to look as unthreatening as possible. I must have succeeded because she calmed down some, but not too much. She quickly did what she was ordered and I was out of chains shortly, she left after that and left the chains as well. It was rather hard not to growl some as she left, just to see if she would jump, but she did unshackle me.

I got up and stretched, once I did that I grabbed the chains with my front forearms and started to drag them outside back end first. I was yelled at to go back in, but I just moved quicker. I looked at them when I got out with a curious look and pulled the chains out , the look on their faces was worth them threatening me. For whatever reason it took almost an hour for them to get me some food, but when it got here… It was good. They had taken a rather large amount of steaks and fortunately they didn't cook them all the way just enough to leave them fairly bloody. They brought them in on a fork lift and pallet, it wasn't the most sanitary of things, but when you have been eating freshly kill things right off the ground. You tend to not care for that too much anymore. I wasn't full from that, but the edge from the hunger was taken off and that was enough for now.

I was thinking about how everything was going and now that I think about it I don't know how long I was in there care. I frown in thought, _"Well… just another thing that I won't be able to do anything about. I will ask the 'interrogator' when he gets back. If he comes back that is."_ They would most likely send down someone that was a little above his pay grade._"Hopefully the next one will be a little more cooperative as well."_ I just layed down and passed the time getting into my trance and then working on improving my capability with it. It was something I had noticed, the more I use it the easier it became, not me trying to get into it quicker. So I passed the time just looking at everything.

* * *

It was sometime later when I noticed a three Pelicans come in for landing. Now I didn't want them to know about this just yet, so decided to tell them when they have proven trust worthy. _"Not that ONI ever really will be trust worthy."_ I knew that the Bitch at the head of ONI would try to keep me secret from Lord Hood, so I needed to do something about that before I got into her grasp. _"But what? If I try to pick a fight I will end up the one dying… As for trying to communicate with someone, I can't. So my choices are rather limited."_ I watched as the Pelicans unloaded around twenty ODST out of two of them, and a group of decorated officials get off of the last one.

"_I just wonder how they expect to get me anywhere. Unless they bring a ship in atmosphere, I don't really think they have anything to transport me effectively at the moment."_ I watched as they walked towards 'my' tent. It seemed they were in a rather big hurry, so I started to collapse my field of vision as they approached me. I exited Trance before they got to the tent and decided to keep them, unbalanced so they don't think they have me figured out. _"With all the information I have I will be able to keep them guessing for a long time."_

I came out of the tent when they got within ten feet of it. I knew that there was the smallest of chances that they were here to kill me, but the suits don't make any sense then so I was fairly sure they were here to talk. One of the suits, he has silverish hair and dull green eyes, steps forward and says, "Guards you are relived return to your posts. Orange team guard the tent, Green team you're in the tent with me and the… Thanator, correct?" He directed the last part to me.

I nod my head and move back into the tent, I only just settle down when they enter. He pulls out a pad and says, "I am sure you are familiar with the use of these?" I could see where this was going and nodded.

"Good" He replied crisply. You could tell that unlike the person from before he wasn't unfazed at least on the outside, by my appearance and decorated as well. He has seen battle, death, and experienced loss. I wouldn't be able to mess with him like the last one. "I will be making this quick. We have a Frigate that is coming in, and we want you on it. I assume from your rather extensive knowledge on our secrets that you know what I am talking about?" Once again I nod; I didn't need to write that out. He nods back and continues, "Okay then, the reason why we want you off planet is that Lord Hood wants to speak with you personally about your knowledge. Do you understand?"

I honestly couldn't believe it, but then again I did speak to some minion about what probably are some of their greatest secrets. So I guess it makes sense that the higher ups would want to take care of this situation themselves, but I had been sure that the Bitch would be the one to get her hands on me. I was you could say relived, but in a way I was in an even bigger pickle. This man was not one to mess with; he had the vast resources of the U.N.S.C. at his disposal, making me disappear would be something of a cake walk. So wanting to make this quick I nod my assent, but really I didn't have a choice.

Everything moved quickly from here on out, I was told that I needed to take a twenty minute ride on the bottom of one of the Pelicans to get where we were going. Without any way to get there otherwise I just got in the net and held on, except I was careful not to accidently cut the net with my claws. It was one of the scariest, but exhilarating experiences I had ever had. I would have preferred a body that could have flown under its own power, but seeing as I didn't exactly get to choose what I was. I am pretty damned grateful that I didn't end up as a worm.

When we finally landed I was directed to board the Frigate from below. It was just like when the tanks were being loaded off in Halo 3 except you are getting on this time, and there are no tanks. I told that the ride would take twenty minutes, so I quickly got on and sat down, and held onto what I could as I felt the g forces from exiting the atmosphere. It was rather interesting and I tried to get into my Trance while we were leaving the planet. I wanted to see if I was right about something, but I doubted I was. This was just a convenient way of checking whether or not my theory was right. _"It would explain a lot about what this ability is…"_

I ended up not being able to get into it during the ride up, but I felt that if I had a little more time I could have done it. I didn't though so when we arrived I was told over the intercom that I needed to exit to my left. The zero g environment made it very difficult to move and then all of a sudden I was kissing the metal ground. _Note to self, if flying in space do __**not**__ let the gravity kick in when you ten feet in the air!"_ I grumble a little and get up. It was then that I noticed how long it had been since I had been able to bath. _"Well they __**are**__ the ones that made the schedule so if they wanted me clean they could have given me some time to at least rinse of, or have someone spray me with a hose"_ I thought as I got off of the Frigate.

It was rather nice here, but I didn't expect space to be… well so boring. I take the time to think about it as we make our way to the bridge. _"I know that this is space and all, but when the only thing that is new is temporary zero g, and a view that is completely awesome admittedly."_ I got another look at the Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. The power that this thing has is truly amazing, but pales in comparison to some of the stuff out there in this galaxy alone. _"But when you don't get to take the time to really look it just kills the coolness. Not too much to do but follow them though, and when am I going to get something to drink? That was one thing they forgot to serve up when they gave me that meal. It was good, but I didn't get anything to wash it down with. Better let it go though, no point in ke-"_

"Amazing isn't it?" One of the suits said.

I just nod. It was amazing, but… _"I wish I had more time to observe everything. It would be something else to see the Super MAC fire, but I doubt they would allow that."_ As it turns out the trip to the bridge was shorter than I thought it would be.

"The design for this station was more expanded than the others, so the civilian population could see what is defending them. Usually there is some crowd, but it has been cleared temporarily for repairs." The way this new suit said it made it entirely clear as to why it has been cleared as we approached the control room. "That was why we are doing this here rather than elsewhere."

A morbid thought crosses my mind, _"Yeah that also makes it easier for me to move around, it doesn't make sense? Why would Hood expose himself like this?"_

"Now something you will need to know while talking to him. Don't try to hold back, it won't be good for your health." Said one of the suits.

"_That is one of the poorest concealed threats I have ever heard, but then again have to consider their secrets and all of that."_ I nod to him and he opens the door. It was very similar to the design from the one in Halo 2. A large open space in the middle, a whole bunch of consoles, a deck overlooking it all, and one giant screen that would make any gamer happy to use it for life.

We entered from under the deck, and I looked around for the leader of the U.N.S.C., but I couldn't find him. I look to the deck when I realize that I didn't look there, and their he was. I studied him as much as he was studying me. It was about a minute before he started to move down the stairs towards me. He was quite imposing or at least he would have been had I not been in my new body. He had white hair even now twelve years before the events of Halo 2, and his eyes seemed to almost bore into me. Making me almost want to try standing straight and try saluting the man, but of course that was impossible now with my new body. He got to the bottom of the stairs and told everyone, "You are all dismissed."

One of the suits looked flabbergasted and the other ones confused, even the ODST. The flabbergasted one said, "But si-" Or at least he tried to.

"I don't want to hear it. If Spencer here" He waved his hand towards me. "Wanted to kill me he could have done it the moment he saw me. Or am I wrong Spencer?" Okay I know that he was doing it to get brownie points, but I'll be damned if the man **didn't** get a shit ton of them when he addressed me with my name, and not Thanator or it. So I lay down and nod my head. He continued, "So there you have it. I want you to leave the writing pad that he uses her and I would like the one that shows said writing myself. Now."

"But sir! This thing could be a member from the Co-" He didn't get to finish that sentence either.

"Matterson." I was impressed to see that Lord Hood didn't need to raise his voice when disciplining his subordinates. Nope it just gained this tone that told you that you were close to being deep fried. It showed that he was sure of himself and the power he wielded; He didn't feel that he needed to throw it around. "You have served well throughout your career as a distinguished officer, but if you disobey a direct order again I will have you court marshalled for doing so." He hadn't changed his posture at all; he was still relaxed he was before and said to the ODST, "Do I have to repeat my orders to you as well ODST?" They quickly snapped salutes and left except for the two that placed the pedestal before me, and they left just as quickly after giving their own salutes. As for the suits, all of them but Matterson left after giving a salute. He walked up to Hood and gave him the receiving pad and left after giving a stiff salute as well.

Hood was still standing at the bottom of the stairs, and he was still looking at me. The door closed and then he finally broke his gaze. He walked over to the control panel and pressed a few buttons. The screens went dead, and the cameras, which were previously giving off an annoying blinking light, went dark. Some machinery moves behind me and I look to see the door was in lock down mode. Neither of us were leaving and no one was entering. He then turned to me and said, "Well I know for sure now that you are no member of Covenant, if you were I would be dead. They are known for their zealousness and wouldn't have wasted an opportunity like the one I just gave you, even if it meant there deaths, they would gladly give them for their faith."

He turns back to the control panel and presses a few buttons. On the big screen battles start to show. He gazes upon it himself as he says, "These are pictures of fighting that we have done with the Covenant. They are of men and women that have died fighting in a war that we are losing, but it is more than that." Here it changes from pictures of warriors that were fighting to survive and dying doing so, to civilians that were running away from the slaughter, only to be mowed down by bolts of plasma. Other pictures showed the eaten remains of some of them. Some were obviously dead when they were being eaten, and others obviously were not. They suffered as their flesh was torn away from their bodies, but the worst part was that it wasn't just adults, but children.

I had throughout this presentation, felt a growing sense of grief and regret. I had come here planning on letting things, for the most part, happen, but seeing this. _"I can't just stand by… Even though he is trying to push me this way…"_ I sigh. _" I'm not angry at him for doing it either."_

"It is the fact that we are fighting a war of survival, one where the enemy has stated and shown that they will leave no one alive. That they will destroy us all… Exterminate us like some like some kind of rabid animal." He turns to me and I see the first emotion since I had meet him on his face. He looked tired, not pained, angry, or hurt, just tired of it all, but willing to continue his path. He presses another button and the screen goes blank. He then says, "You come to this world, and I find out that you claim that you know why this war started. At first I didn't believe that claim when I heard it from the person who talked to you, but you mentioned things that only a few know about, and only two know about all of them." He walked up to me, and got about ten feet from me and said, "Tell me why so many needed to die?"

I could only watch as he said those words. I knew the answer, but as I nodded my head, I could only think of how irrevocably thing are going to be changed, and what my new life would be like.


	5. Chapter 5 A New Existence

A New Existence

AN: As far as I know the information in this chapter is accurate, but if some of you feel differently please say so, but with proof backing it up, so I can find out whether or not I was wrong. I wont correct it because in the story that will be how I remember it, but it will make for a good plot twist later on in the story. Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

"Maweypeyyu" = Talking  
"_Mìftxele_" = Thinking  
**nìawnomum **= Emphasis on talking, thinking, or otherwise  
:Time is power: = Written dialog

Hood walked over to a chair and pulled it over to sit on it, but never got within ten feet of me. While he was doing that I wrote. :The Covenant attacked because your very existence contradicts their religion.:

Hood had sat down and read what I wrote. He thought it over and said, "How?" It was a simple question, but the answer wasn't.

I sigh, but start writing. :To explain that I will have to explain how their faith came to be and more. Are you okay with that?: I looked up and watched him, it didn't take long.

"Yes. I could use this information, so please continue." He rested his arms on his legs and stared down at the pad, waiting for my response.

:Okay. To understand their faith you need to go back about on hundred thousand years, during that time there was a race called the Forerunners. They were fighting they called the Flood, and were losing. The Flood is some type of organism that takes control of any organism that has sufficient biomass, and mutates it genetic makeup very rapidly to suit its purposes. The Forerunners fought it for three hundred years, used every plan they could, but they were forced to use their last resort. That is twelve rings that they constructed, but before they could use them five of them were destroyed. In the end the seven Halo rings, as they were named, that survived are capable of ending the Flood threat, but it did this by starving them.:

:To starve the Flood you had to kill off all sentient life in the galaxy however. Throughout the Forerunner – Flood war they gathered samples from every race so that they could repopulate the galaxy. Once done they for some reason died off, and named Humans as the ones to inherit everything they left behind. I will explain that later, but when the Covenant started they had misunderstood and mistranslated some writings left behind by the Forerunners. That screw up got them thinking that the Halo Array would turn them into gods when activated and as for the ruin that was supposed to represent your race… well they thought that it meant Reclamation while it really meant Reclaimer.:

:So when the three current leaders discovered this, they covered it up. They knew that revealing the truth would cause massive riots and civil war throughout the Covenant. They also didn't want their power to be taken away, but it was mostly to prevent inner conflict as far as I recall. Later it turns into the fact they do really believe that they are going to turn into gods once the Halo Array is activated. Not much of an excuse to attack, but they thought it was worth it.:

I watched as Hood got up and walked back to the control consol and active the big screen again. He looked at the pictures of the men and women that fought and died along with the people that were slaughtered by the Covenant. He looked for several minutes and then turned to me and said, "They attacked because of that…" He said it in such a way that it didn't sound like a question, more like a statement. So I stayed quite as I waited for to continue, and he eventually did. "Despite the reason for them attacking, it doesn't change the fact that they **are** attacking." He turned to me and said, "Everything you have told me fits with what I knew before we talked, but how can I be sure that what you told me is the truth?"

_"Why is he asking me this? After all he could find out in a week or two at max if he had a team check under New Mombasa. Wait… did I even tell him about New Mombasa?"_ I thought back to our 'conversation' and found that I had not told him about that little bit of information. :If you want to find out if I am telling the truth, have a team of people check out under New Mombasa. There you will find a massive device; it is used to make a portal that leads to the Ark. That is what made the Halos, and probably has greatest well of information left behind by the Forerunners.:

He looked at me for a moment and said, "How sure of this are you?" He looked rather tense right now.

:One hundred percent, but you won't be able to power the portal device. To power it you would need a Forerunner ship that is in the hands of the Covenant right now. You won't be able to get that unless you are able to fight off over four hundred Covenant Super Carriers and the ships that go with them.:

Hood looked quite troubled by that statement as he said, "If the Covenant have that kind of fire power, why haven't they ended the war?"

:The leaders don't want to leave themselves defenseless.: It was rather simple really.

He looked quite relieved by that and said, "The portal generator under New Mombasa, does it have any weaponry in it?"

I was surprised by that question. I had never put any thought into that, so I told him. :I don't know if it has any weapons on it, but it will have some type of technology that you could study I'm sure.:

He was quick to respond, "But you don't know for sure?"

:No. I never put any thought into it.: I realized my mistake now, after all I am speaking almost as if I had been at these places.

I watched as Hood looked at my still form, watching me like a hawk, and I knew then that he was just trying to get all the information he could out of me. I heard something in the back ground, up on the platform that Hood had come from, and I looked.

Standing there was three people in an armor that was unmistakable, and I right there and then I knew that I was completely and totally fucked. I voiced these thoughts too, well wrote them. :Well I'm fucked.: I was quite sure that one of them was something of an idol of mine. No not the Master Chief, as badass as he truly is, I admire the one that the Chief himself says is the strongest of them. Linda, and right now I knew that if I so much as moved the wrong way I was dead, as I noticed a rather large sniper rifle pointing my way. So I stayed completely still and only move my arms to write and my head to watch.

I look over to Hood and before I could write anything he said, "Well do you honestly think that I was left unprotected with a possible dangerous element?" I looked back to them and gulped and shook my head no. Hood just chuckled and continued. "Judging by your reaction I would say that you know who you are up against. So I will make this simple, I want to know everything you do about the Covenant. Also whatever else might be a threat to us in the future. Now."

I looked back at the Spartans and looked back to Hood. Without much of a choice I nodded my head, and thought. _"It isn't like I stand a chance against those __**three**__, much less __**one**__ of them."_ I take the pad and write. :I will tell you everything, all you had to do was ask really.: I look back at the Spartans and write. :It is really uncomfortable having them there, could they come to the front? I would rather see my death coming at me, thank you very much, but if not that is okay too.:

I watched as Hood studied me for a minute and then said, "Oh-five-eight, stay up there, one-one-seven and oh-eight-seven please come down here and join me." I jerked a little as I heard the numbers. I hadn't memorized them, but it was hard not to remember the serial number for the Master Chief. I looked back at them and I knew there was fear in my eyes, and for good reason to. I heard Hood start to talk so I looked at him. "ONI must have more than a few leaks if you know who they are just by hearing their numbers."

I honestly felt extremely relieved as I looked at the pad and thought, _"Okay. Damn. I thought they were going to kill me. They just want to know where I got my information from… Yeah, that's… Well hmmmmmmm… This is going to be an interesting conversation. Yes Spencer you are only trying to convince them that I am from a dimension that their war is a game, book, and comic series… Now even thought I haven't read the comics… That still a little out there even for me, but then again I do have proof… I think."_ I just had to hope that they would keep me alive long enough so they could find the proof.

I looked up and I noticed that the two Spartans were with Hood now, and Hood was looking at me with a dangerous glint in his eyes. _"Um, well that's not good... You know it just struck me, but from now on it is going to be __**very**__ hard to not crack jokes about him and Lord Helmet."_ Stopped myself from laughing out loud, but I wasn't able to stop some snickering. I shook my head and thought, _"While it is very amusing there is no time to contemplate the similarities between this dimension and Spaceballs. Yes back to the person that has the real army and three Spartans that can kill me before I get one foot from where I am right now."_

Just when I finished thinking that Hood said, "I find it very odd that you were so afraid earlier and not afraid anymore without reason. Now I suggest that you keep any type of weapons that you might have to yourself and talk."

I could only stare as I heard that, and thought, _"Then again he is right. I __**was**__ scared, but not anymore… Hmmmm odd."_ I let it go and reached for the pad and wrote. :I'm not worried because I am, despite them not in any danger.: I look up only to find the Spartans that had previously left their weapons on themselves, now had them pointing at me. I looked over to who I was sure would be the one who would end up killing me if this went south. Only to find that she was now looking through the scope of her rifle, but I knew that was for show. She could shoot me with just as much accuracy without having to worry about looking through the scope at this range, and I was tempted to write that when I looked back at them, I quickly wrote out. :I didn't mean that I would attack, nope I said, well wrote, that I'm not in any danger because I know that the portal generator that is under New Mombasa is there. I also know that you can confirm my story very quickly. Within a week at least.:

Hood looked up from the pad after he read that and said, "Do you know the names of the soldiers here?"

I found it odd that he would ask that request, but then I realized that he was still fishing, so I wrote. :As I said before **I would tell you anything**. So please stop beating around the bush, but that one is John – one-one-seven, that one I don't know, and that one pointing her sniper rifle at me I am pretty sure is Linda. I don't remember the number you guys gave her after her abduction. Now that I think about it though…: I looked at the Spartans for a moment and nodded. :Since the Chief and Linda are here, chance are that this one is Kelly or Fred, but that doesn't mean it is though. After all anyone of the Spartans that made it through the augmentations would be able to kill me, maybe not when there out of their Mjolnir armor, that is assuming they don't have weapons as well, but defiantly when they are in it. Even if they don't have weapons, they would be able to without too much trouble I think.:

Hood looked perplexed for a moment, but covered it up quick enough that I only got a glimpse of that look. This encounter with the Spartans reminded me of another Spartan that is being held back by a certain old bitch, and I was about to tell them when Hood said, "Where did you get all of this information from?"

I decide to tell them about their missing friend first as I write. :Parangosky has a Spartan that she is keeping from combat, and she is as far as I recall, combat ready. As for how I know these things, well first I want to ask you what you know of dimensions.:

When I looked up Hood was visibly tense and the Spartans were now looking at him. _"Their heads are probably whirling with ideas, and such"_ I thought. I moved to write some more, but Hood said, "How do you know these things?" I looked right to him as he started to talk to me, and I could tell he didn't know how to deal with me.

"_He probably thinks I'm some type of military element from a __**new**__ alien race or some such. That will present a rather large problem for me, still I had better answer the man quickly."_ So I quickly wrote out. :Well to put it simply I am from a different dimension. In that dimension I was human, but…: I look at my hands and give a content sigh, then I continue. :I am no longer human though, not anymore obviously. In the dimension I came from there are games, books, and comic series that describe this universe. The games for the most part followed the Master Chief over their as he fought through the Covenant, Sentinels, and Flood to save humanity. They only covered the last part of the war however. The books covered a lot of other things and gave more detail into what happened and other stories in the war. The comics, well I never read them so I can't really say, well write.:

"You expect me to believe that?" Hood said with skepticism coloring his voice as he stared at me with a look that told me he doesn't believe me.

I let out another large sigh and write. :No. I don't expect you to take it on faith, or just because I told you. On the other hand I do expect you to check if my story is correct. You can do this by checking for the Spartan Parangosky is hiding, and check for a massive technological structure beneath New Mombasa. In the mean time I am pretty sure that you will hand me over to ONI and they will do everything they can to get information out of me. I warn you now though, I won't say anything until my story is proven true, and torturing me will only make me stay quiet longer.:

"_I didn't think it would come to this, but… they are at war, and as far as they are concerned I could just be another Covenant species they haven't encountered yet. Well nothing to do about it. So let what is to come, come."_ I knew that they would at best lock me up and ignore me for a week or two, starving me while they confirm my story. _"Unfortunately to be Human is to fear the unknown. I'm glad I have learned to embrace it recently."_ I look to Hood and the Spartans. The Spartans were now looking at me with their weapons pointing in my general direction and Hood looked like he had come to his decision. _"I can only hope my stay won't be too bad, but I can only hope."_

Hood once again takes a look at the screen and then says, "No we will not torture you Spencer, as for your story, telling us about a structure underground, a missing Spartan, the apparent history of this war, and more… That doesn't confirm your story. You could be from an alien race that has technology that is beyond even the Covenants for all I know, and that is far more believable than you being from a different dimension where **my** people are dying in a fictional story. How do you expect me to believe that?"

I give a tired smile and write. :I don't expect you to believe me. Like I told you, the stuff that you will find will prove my story. It is there, right where I said it is. I could tell you more, but I don't think you would care to listen at this point.: I look to Hood as he looks back.

"You are right, I don't care to listen right now." Hood looked up behind me and said. "Spartan." It was a command for something, and I just hoped it wasn't for my death. I hear something move behind me, but I don't care as I bend down to write one last thing. :Hood, if you do this wrong you will regret it, this I promise you.:

"_Hopefully they will learn to listen."_ I have that last thought before I hear something right next to me, and then I feel something as it enters my neck. Everything starts to go dark, and then silence.

When I wake up it is in a room. It was a rather plain room with grayish walls and a very simple set up. When facing the door a room that looks to be a showering area is there, another room off to my left that has some type of dispenser… I think, and the middle room is what could only be a sleeping area.

"_Well I hope they thought of something for when I need to go to the bathroom, after all I can only hold it in so long… if they didn't… well things will get messy in here quickly… Well if they are going to keep me here at least I won't have to clean it up. Still have to smell it though."_ With that cheerful thought I went and laid down. After all I won't be able to do much until they decided to come and get me.

It was some time later that my stomach had finally convinced me to get up and see if that thing in the right room was a dispenser of some kind. As I headed over there I wondered how long I had been here and thought, _"Well it probably wasn't too long unless they stuffed food down my throat."_ It wasn't a long trip to the room with the thing that might be a dispenser. I stare at it as my stomach growls again, and try to see if there is a button or something like that. I looked several times but every time came up with nothing and I thought, _"Well… at least I get a wash room… Yet no food, how… considerate of them."_

I just leave and just as I am laying back down I remember my Flow Trance and I think, _"Well… this seems oddly familiar. I really hope they bring some food in here soon, and maybe bring me back down to the planet to my business, I'm only going to be able to hold out a little longer at this point."_ I shake my head and focus on getting into my Trance. _"At least this way I will be able to know what is going on around me."_ It takes me about twice as long for me to get into my Trance, but when I do I pull right back from what felt like ten hot pieces metal being driven right into my brain, and my quills felt like they were dipped into said metal.

"_What the __**hell**__ was __**that!**__"_ I'm panting and groaning in pain as my quills throb from whatever they were picking up. _"Damn it! Did they figure out what I can do?"_ I tried to think more, but my quills were just throbbing in too much pain as my quills recovered from whatever that was. I didn't know how much time passed before the pain became manageable, and I got up and stumbled into what looked likes a wash room and did my business. I didn't really care for the smell because of the pain, and went into the room on the other side of my set up to try and get some sleep.

It must have taken close to three hours for me to fall asleep, but when I finally did I was violently pulled from it as I was wracked with pain centering from my quills again. I screamed and roared in agony, as it was even worse this time. I couldn't think and I don't know how much time I spent curled up in a corner trembling in pain. When the pain finally subsided to a point that was manageable I thought, _"How did that happen? I didn't try to go into my Trance…"_ I sighed as I realized why that happened. _"My body must use it unconsciously when I go to sleep. Useful, but __**not**__ in this case, still I do wonder how they managed to figure it out… I don't even know for sure what this ability is…"_ I cringed as the pain throbbed stronger for a moment and, then it finally seemed to subside, but it still left an ach far worse than what I was experiencing a few days ago around my neck and head area.

I sit up slowly and as I do so I hear the door open in the main room. I really didn't care who came in as long as they didn't try to kill me, so I sat down and waited. I heard what sounded like metal moving across metal for a moment and then silence. Curious I got up and walked over slowly, it turned out to be a metal plate about the size of a pallet, and it had about half of what they gave me before my meeting with the 'good' Lord Hood.

I scowled at the pallet/plate thing as I thought,_ "Trying to keep me just alive huh? Well… You have officially made me pissed off. If you expect to get anything else out of me Hood…"_ I got an evil grin on my face as I continued thinking. _"Then you had better pull something __**reeeaaaalllllyyy gooooooood**__ out of your bag of tricks. Because that act of playing on my good side wasn't what put you in my bad book, no what put you there is your complete lack of care for me. Especially when you think that I am from another alien species that you have yet to encounter, __**and**__ my kind have seemingly evaded all of your detection gear around your __**HOME **__planet and landed on it, know most of your biggest secrets, and are __**supposedly**__ have technology that makes the Covenant look like a pansy in comparison… Well maybe the technology one is a bit much, but he doesn't know that… and this is how he treats me! Geez! Is he trying to provoke a race that he thinks is there?"_ I shake my head to try clearing my thoughts. I know there isn't a single point in speculating on Hoods motives. I look back to the meat and move to eat it. _"After all it is better to have some rather than none."_ I think as I eat.

It didn't take long for me to finish and my body cried for more. I ignored it and went back to the room I was in before. It is rather depressing to have this happen, but it wouldn't be the first time that I had to go hungry like this. I remember times in my life where I was only able to eat once a day if I was lucky, that time in my life didn't last long fortunately. Only once did it last for a week, and looking back now I realize that my parents always made sure to get me and my siblings at least some food once a day. It was a long time ago, and I barely remember it, but it taught me to enjoy what you got and most importantly, **don't** live like you will have a meal to eat three times a day every day.

I smile as I think, _"Those times weren't the best, but they certainly weren't the worst."_ I sigh contently as I let my mind wander over my life. All of those time that my brothers and I would climb the tree in our front yard, when we had one in our front at least. Jumping off of roofs just for fun, we made our mother **very** angry for that one. Taking all of our beds and lining the stairway with them, and use them like a slide. Going out and exploring anything and everything, just to find something fun to do. Running through a field of fireflies and collecting them in our shirts so they would glow, wish we had pictures of that one. _"Ahhhhh, those were the times…"_ I thought as I laid there.

After thirty minutes I noticed that I was starting to fall asleep, and I couldn't stop it. I thought back to the food and I froze as it came me, _"They drugged it… Shit."_ I got up moved around, trying to keep myself awake, but my body was still going to sleep.

My heart started to slow down despite my panic and I started to go to sleep. I made every effort, but in the end my eyes closed and darkness took me.

I woke up with my heart racing as I remembered that I should be in extreme pain, my body trembling just from remembering it. _"Okay Spencer… Take deep breathes and calm down."_ I thought as I did my best to calm myself down, but it still took me awhile to do it.

Once I did though I finally looked around. I noticed that my surrounding have changed, I am in a single room now, and it almost seemed to be built for me. _"Okay, first Hood says he wouldn't torture me, but somehow finds out a way to take my Flow Trance and turn it into a sick form of torture, then he puts me in a room that seems to be built with me in mind. Where the __**hell**__ does he get off thinking that it will all be water under the bridge, just because he gives me a room that is built for me! I __**really**__ hope this isn't some type of joke because if it is… I think I am going to snap and kill someone."_

I growled as I stared at what was the door, and think on the pros and cons of trying to break I down. _"On one side I get to see if my body can tear through what the U.N.S.C. thinks can hold me. On the other my body really isn't in the condition to be doing that, and I ne-"_ The door moves and starts to open.

It only opens enough to slide in the pad I have been using to communicate. I look at it and then the door as it closes, and then I hear a voice through what must be the intercom say, "You have been moved here and will be kept here until we determine whether or not you are a threat to us. To do this you will need to give us all the information that you have on the Covenant and other beings in the galaxy. Once you have done so we will let you go on a planet of your choosing." It was a male voice, and it sounded somewhat familiar, but I ignored the familiarity for my own thoughts.

"_Ohhhhhh. That was the wrong move Hood. I warned you and now I will make you regret doing this to me."_ I got up ignoring the voice as it told me to start writing down all information. I look at the door and try to find a weakness, but I don't and think, _"It must be a hydraulic or mechanical system that pulls it up and down."_ I grin as I look down at my body. _"I warned you Hood. Now I will force your people to kill me while I still have some strength in me. I would rather do that then wither away to nothing. So deal with the Covenant yourself I am sure you will do well."_ I brace myself with my back front forelegs and reach up to the door. I try ripping through it with my claws, but I don't succeed.

"That won't work. That door is made out of the strongest metal in the U.N.S.C.. We use it to make our ships with, Grade A Titanium. You won't be ripping through it with your claws." I get down and stare at the intercom with a look of 'are you stupid' on my face. After all he just told me how to get out of here.

_"Thank you for that you asshole, but just because a door is strong __**doesn't**__ mean the wall around it is."_ The wall was made out of concrete, probably their instacrete stuff. It is strong as a hell, but it wasn't designed to protect against ripping and tearing, just bullet and bombs.

I move over to the pad and pick it up. I place it front of the door and move to the side of the door. Then I brace myself like before and think, _"This is what you get for breaking the Over Lord List you idiot Hood."_ The particular rule that I was thinking about basically came down to: DON'T PISS OFF THE MONSTER THAT I HAVE IN RESREVE OR IT MIGHT COME AND BITE ME IN THE ASS LATER FOR DOING SO. _"And guess what Hood, you __**pissed me off!**__"_

I start to tear through the concrete with **far** more success than the door. Then I hear something like a latch being unlocked, and I looked to where the sound came from. Only to find a little hatch open and some shimmering stuff coming out of it. _"Want to play 'what can last longer' huh? Well-"_ I breath in and out really fast and then take one deep breath, and hold it. _"I am pretty sure I will last longer than your wall."_ I glare at it and start to dig in with twice the effort, and it showed.

About five minutes later my lungs are screaming for air and I was about to give up when I punched through. I quickly put my mouth to the hole and breathe in and out refreshing myself. The alarms were blaring now and I grin as I think, _"Time to show you __**why**__ you should have just listened to me Hood."_ I tear down the rest of the wall that was in my way and turn to grab the pad, I wanted to leave one last message, but first I needed to get out of the room. So I reach through the hole with the pad and place it just outside. Then I go through myself and once out I look back to see my handy work. _"Man __**that**__ felt good."_ The door was standing strong, but the wall wasn't.

_"Me and my brother would always go on and on about idiots that make a door that is strong as all __**hell**__, but forget to do the same to the wall holding it up. Oh well, their loss and my gain."_ With that thought I grab the pad again and move further down the hall. Once far enough away from the room I write. :This is what you get for doing this Hood. Now I will force your men to kill me, and you lose a source of information that could have won you the war.: I pick it up and rear up. Then as I fall back down I use that momentum to crush the pad beneath my feet.

I turn to the hall and start to move down it. I knew that I had to be brought through the halls that I could fir through, so I stayed in them. _"Something is bugging me though… but what."_ As I was passing a place where a door should have been closed it hit me. _"They are luring me into a trap."_ I knew that in order to escape it I had to use my Flow Trance ability, but I think back to the pain and my body shivers. I gulp and sit down after moving around some stuff so I no one will be able to sneak up on me without making noise and think, _"You know this is the only way out of here Spencer… So __**just do it**__!"_ With that I start to fall into my Trance, but it takes almost twice the amount of time, but I don't feel any pain when I get into it.

_"Whatever the hell happened I don't care right now. What I need to do is look for my way out and how that way is set up to stop me."_ I look and find that I was only a few more doors from the exit, and sitting right outside is a force of ODST with armored support, in the form of two scorpions, and four warthogs. _"Over kill much boys…"_ Along with them is four Spartans, they had made an addition to the team. This only was carrying he signature weapon from Halo Reach the game. _"So they brought in Jorge huh? Well lets see… Linda is set up about a four hundred feet above the door, so I'm not getting past that area no matter how hard I try, good. Although… I never did get to try this body out to its __**full**__ potential…"_ I grin as I look for another route, so I follow the hall up the other way and find a landing pad on a sheer cliff. Below is a drop of several hundred feet, and a massive river that is moving slowly. _"Soooooo… the problem won't be the water, but the jump. Hmmmmmm. Well figure it out when I get there."_

So I start heading towards the landing pad and along the way I run into something interesting. _"Mwhahahahah, they were kind enough to leave me a double barreled rocket launcher laying around when they were leaving!"_ I grab it and hold it just like I had the pad that I used to write on as I head to the landing pad.

It takes me roughly ten minutes to trek the base, and get to the landing pad. It was much like the one from Halo three, but instead of being a sheer drop at the end of the room, there was a metal ledge they put in that went out about forty feet. I went to the edge and looked out at the view before me. It is a river that is flowing through a canyon that goes right to what could be a massive sea or lake, but that wasn't what had my attention. It was the sky that had it as I looked out at the sky to see the massive gas giant I recognize from a game. _"They brought me to Reach… Well-"_ I think back to the pain. _"I'm pretty sure now they __**didn't**__ find a way to counter my Flow Trance. Slipspace was what I was sensing… After all I was trying to use an extrasensory ability in a multidimensional area. Who knows how my ability would have reacted to it…"_ While that did dissolve the U.N.S.C. of the pain I felt during transit to Reach, it doesn't get rid of the black mark on their record for this incident.

_'Well…"_ I look back down to the river and no my head. _"Time to get this show on the road."_ I hear something behind me and I see the four Spartans, and they were pointing their weapons at me.

"Spencer!" I knew that voice, it was the Chief and he didn't sound happy. "We have orders to shoot you if you try to jump. Now come back and we can talk about this."

I will give them credit, they could kill me before I jumped off the ledge, but that was the point. So I put the rocket down, and start to walk towards them. _'I really doubt they will kill me any way. After all I __**am**__ the only one who can give them the information they want, that would make me a tear one asset, wouldn't it?"_ When I got ten feet from the edge I give them one big grin and turn to run towards the ledge. I hear them running after me, and while they were faster in the short run, I knew I would be faster in the long run, that and I was at least one hundred feet from them. So when I covered those ten feet I reach out and grab the rocket launcher and jump off.

It was one **hell** of a rush; my blood was racing and my head pounding. Although my body didn't seem to like it as it started to panic, but I quickly silenced that and focused on the water that was rapidly approaching. Now if I had more time to figure out the rocket launcher I could've used it, but seeing as I didn't I let it go and twisted my body so I would land on my back shoulder area, or at least I tried to. I ended up getting close to what I wanted a few seconds before I hit the water, but I blacked out when I hit.

I could have only been out for a few seconds at most, as my body demanded for me to get out of the water and rest, for good reason too, as I couldn't really use my right front shoulders. I quickly use my tail to push me to the top of the river, and I might not have managed to do so if it was moving fast. When I broke to the surface I thought, _"Well fuck this hurts. I can barely move my right arms."_ I still thought of them as such, seeing as how they were capable of grabbing and such. I look back up at the cliff and see a person pointing something at me. _"Fuck!"_ I quickly stop my tail from moving and take what breath I can as I sink like a rock. I saw the water near my head explode into a splash of water, and I knew then that staying here was a death wish. So I angled my body to move down the river and started moving. I was moving quite fast by the time I needed to come up for breath, but I knew that would be a death wish.

_"Still I __**need**__ air, so this is what I will do."_ I used my momentum to have my body come out of the water for a split second and breathe out and take what I could in, but it wasn't much. I heard the water right behind me explode into a splash once again, and I knew that chances were I wouldn't be able to do that again. So I decided to be sneaky about it. I moved my body to the side that the platform was on and swam up river until I needed to get air. Then I grabbed on to the rock with all of my claws except my front right ones. Once I steady myself I **SLOWLY** move my head up to the surface of the water, and I only let enough of my head out to breath air and I manage to get a full tank. So I slowly pull myself back under and just as I get under enough the water where my head was exploded. I let myself fall for ten seconds into the water so I couldn't be seen and start moving.

I grinned and thought, _"Close Linda, but I know I am running out of options so… I had better book this one"_ Really pushing myself I could only hold my breath for about three minutes, but that is accounting for a healthy body. So I probably only had two minutes of air, but I am moving with the river not against it, and I was fast in water. Not boat fast but for an animal I was probably moving around fifteen to twenty miles an hour. So over those two minutes I covered quite the distance, _"Now for some air…"_

I went to the opposite side this time and quickly did a pass for air. I ended up getting nicked on the side this time though, and I pushed myself harder because of it. _"Shit, I don't think I will be able to get away again."_ I thought with some panic, but I pushed it down and held out as long as I could. When I could hold it no longer I went up with one last thought, _"Well I don't think you're going to miss this time Linda."_ I glare at the water surface and then the sky as I broke the water. As I was taking deep breaths I expected to be shot at any moment, but I wasn't. Confused I look to the platform only to find that it didn't look like they were their. I immediately looked for an air ship or some boats bearing down on me, but there was nothing.

Knowing that here was no place I could hide on this planet because of their satellites orbiting the planet, I just kept my head above water as I move down river. _"Let's see what you do next Hood…"_

I noticed why Thanator avoided water as I moved down river. My body was cooling down quickly now and I knew that if I didn't get out soon I would die here. _"Dammit I didn't come all this way just __**not**__ to get to use this body to its full potential at least once!"_ I know that I need to move faster so I can get out of here and to keep my body temp up. So I take a deep breath and dive under the water, and push myself once again.

It took me around ten minutes to get to the lake/sea area, and once there I moved right for the left bank. Getting there however will be a little harder than I had thought, as there is a group of three small boats sitting about four hundred feet straight out in front of me. I knew what I needed to do to get by them, I would use the same tactic I used against the Hippos, _"Except now I can go __**much**__ deeper."_ I almost laughed evilly, but I had not been noticed yet because the water is a deep blue almost black. So I take one big breath and dive under to attack.

I take about thirty seconds to get there and find the boats in a triangle formation, so I go for the one in the back of the triangle and come up behind it. I refresh my lungs and then tear the motor off of the back of it with one bite and twist, and quickly dove under again. This brought about a lot of screams of confusion, and the other two moved in closer. To see if they can help them, at least that is what I thought they were doing, they actually opened fire on me instead. Unfortunately for them I was already gone and I now had my next target.

I waited for them to stop moving, that took about two minutes. Then moved to the left side of the boat, and pushed myself straight up out of the water and came right down on the side of the boat. This had the effect of bringing just a little over three tons of weight right on to the side of the small boat and it tipped quickly as a result. As I did this I made sure to get as much fresh air as possible, and make sure to scare the shit out of the people on the boat. _"Now I know why the shark from the Jaws movie did what he did because seeing those faces and hearing their screams of terror as the boat goes down… Oh it is __**fun**__."_ The only difference is that I wasn't out to kill them.

I watched the tipped boat from under the water to make sure everyone made it out alive, but one of them seemed to be stuck on the straps of the chain gun. _"Man if this was a Jaws movie I would approach him slowly and watch as he screams in fear, and then eat him… Lucky for these people I'm not into eating humans… Yet."_ After all it is said to be the sweetest meat out there, but that wasn't here or there. So I moved after that little bout of insanity, and tried to get him out of the straps, but he turned the chain gun on me.

Now I know that the bullets wouldn't get more than one or two feet from the muzzle and the thing can't point straight up. So I dove down under him and came up right under him. He struggled quite a bit, and almost stabbed me, so I grabbed that arm and squeezed. Now I don't know if it was a bit much, as he started to scream. I decided that subtlety would only get this person killed at this point so I grabbed the straps that were holding him with my left legs, and pushed away with my hind legs. It didn't give right away, so I gave it a much harder 'tug' and it finally gave.

I noticed that he wasn't breathing so I quickly grabbed him and put him on my muzzle and swam up. When I came up it must have been a rather odd sight to say the least. Seeing a beast that is supposed to be a land predator move through the water so well and disable two boats effortlessly, come up with one of their own. _"I wish I could see their faces right now."_

I move towards the boat and I hear one of the people call for the chain gun to hold fire. As I get closer to the boat I hear one of them say, "Whatever the fuck this thing is sir it might just be using Marty's body as a shield, to get to us sir."

The response from the commanding officer was interesting as it was reveling, "I don't care for ONIs tests right now soldier. So why don't you train that weapon somewhere that isn't pointing at one of **my** people."

"_A test huh… Well I had better give them something to score…"_ I bring the person who is now named Marty to the side of the boat. I push my head into arms reach of them and wait as they take him off of me. I watch for a moment, but know that I can't stick around, so I take a deep breath and dive under once again. I leave the third boat alone and move for the beach.

I get there about five minutes later, and when I get out my front right side is hurting so much that I can't walk on it. So I drag myself onto the beach and just lay there, letting the sun put warmth back into my body. I look around and think, _"Well I'm not going anywhere for a few days. By that time I expect to starve to death as my body recovers, or be picked up by the U.N.S.C.."_ I knew that I couldn't resist them at this point. _"I was only just able to make it down here as it is."_ I sigh as I look up to the sky, admiring the difference in view compared to the view on Earth. _"It looks __**way**__ better here than it does in the game."_ I feel a shiver go through my body as I lay there in the sun. I hear a sound of what sounds like a Falcon off in the distance. I grin as I think, _"Hope that was good enough for you little pricks because I'm not going to be able to test anymore for a while."_

I look to the sound to see a group of three Falcons, and a Pelican drop ship coming towards me. _"Now is it really a test or was that something that they were told to say so I would let my guard down…"_ I try to get up, but my front right side refused to support any weight I put on it. I chuckle as I notice the ships get closer. _"Almost on me now, so what are you going to do now?"_

I watch as the Falcons circle around me and I notice a Spartan with a sniper rifle pointing at me in one of them. I gulp again as I notice this, and wonder why I'm alive. _"Huh, wonder why she isn't shooting… If they were hunting me they would have killed me by now, but they haven't. So this is a real test, or they see this as a perfect opportunity to recapture me, and it is the perfect opportunity as well."_ I watch as the Pelican comes in low and lands about twenty feet to my left. Four people came out, and three of them were Spartans.

"_Well isn't this a cookie you've found yourself in Spencer? Now to find out what they want."_ I watch as they got closer, and the women that was with them started to talk I realized who was speaking to me. _"Halsey"_ The voice was a little different a little younger, but I am one hundred percent sure it is her.

"You made quite the ruckus over at the base you were stored Spencer. A lot of people are interested in what you know, and you can do. However you have been put under my care now, so I will be dealing with you. So I would appreciate it if you cooperate with me, will this become a problem?" I did my best to shrug my shoulders, but it was difficult to do so laying down on my left side. She seemed to get the message though as she said, "You won't have to worry about being starved now. Like I said you are in my care, and I prefer it that you were in full health when we talk. I went over the discussion that you had with Lord Hood, and I must say despite his orders, some people have gone to some rather large lengths to make sure you were tested their way before you came into my care, which you are in now."

She pulls out a rather large syringe and shows it to me, and says. "This is the sedative that we used on you earlier, it will put you out for around thirty minutes. When you wake up you will be in a different facility and we will talk more then. So is it okay for me to put you to sleep or are we going to have Linda do it?"

All considering it was turning out to be something that I figured that I should have seen coming. I blink at her a few times and nod my head. She approaches me slowly and I just roll my eyes and think, _"Geez, could you just get it over with?"_

After a little bit I feel her hands on my right side, I wince but let her continue. A few seconds later I hear her say, "You truly are a magnificent specimen." I move my head slowly to look at her and do my best to look at her with a 'wtf' look. I seemed to succeed as I see her give me a slightly sheepish look with a small grin. "This is the first time that something like you has ever been discovered." I lay my head back down and shake my head. I hear her cough and then say, "I am going to inject you now, so the next time we will be talking will be in a much more comfortable situation."

I have one last thought before Halsey sticks me, _"Well here is to a new existence." _With that I feel the needle pierce my neck and soon after that I feel myself go to sleep, and the last thing I hear is Halsey telling the Spartans to prep me for transport.


	6. Chapter 6 Finding a Purpose

Finding a Purpose

AN: I have really thought about how I have been writing lately, and I decided that I need to put more human things into the story. Granted earlier parts of the story really didn't give opportunities for that, but as I move on I will strive to write this story with a human element. Although given the very nature of the story there **will** be portions that will **not** be anything resembling a human element.

As for the reviewers I thank you: Jetsmillion, Oplindenfep, and Totally Emo for the reviews, and to Jetsmillion. I don't know about me being passed off as a bio weapon, while very likely the story is writing itself as much as I am writing it. I know where I want it to get, but everything in between is in the air right now. As for WTF moments… I really don't know. The story is supposed to be from my point of view, that is why you aren't reading the other characters thoughts, so it will make any WTF moment, on the Covenants part, be hard to write properly. I hope though that when that time does come along, it will be epic, but no promises. Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

"Maweypeyyu" = Talking  
"_Mìftxele_" = Thinking  
**nìawnomum **= Emphasis on talking, thinking, or otherwise  
:Time is power: = Written dialog

* * *

I didn't dream again, I only remember floating in darkness. It was peaceful, but I knew that like all the dreams this one would come to its end. I didn't want this one to end though, I wanted to lay down and rest here. With no worries, fear, hate, or anything trying to hurt me, but as I said before it all comes to an end, and most times it is when we don't want something to end, it ends. Just before it does I hear a voice, it is the same one from before, and I didn't understand what it said, but I could tell that it isn't pleading this time. A moment later I wake up.

So the first thing I did was open my eyes, but I regretted that as the lights seemed to burn them and I thought, _"Okay I'm going to kick Al-"_ I sighed as I remembered I wasn't at home. I was in a facility that was somewhere on a planet in a game. _"You know… just because I found the idea interesting, doesn't mean you actually need to put me in this world. In a new body no less, that wasn't a part of my wondering either, and we both know that."_ I thought as I glared at the ceiling. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that some being out there had put me in this situation.

"I hope that glare isn't for me." I heard someone in front. I turned to look at the person, and found Halsey sitting in a chair looking at me with a slight smile. "Because if it was then I think I will come back later, so you can settle down. Unless you think we can do this now?" She said with an eyebrow raised.

I looked around and tried to move my front right forearm, but it was still rather sore from my fall. So I sit up and signal for her to continue by waving my front left forepaw in the come-come motion, while holding up my weight with my back left foreleg. Once she got the message she continued.

"Well I will get right to it. We are here for one thing and one thing only when it comes down to it and that is finding a purpose for you." I nod my head when she paused for a moment. "Well since this will take much longer otherwise, I had another writing pad made for you, after you destroyed the last one" I give a slight grin at the memory of that. "Yes well you have a few choices at this point. One you can just tell us everything and leave to whatever planet you want to. Two is telling us nothing and we will bring you to a planet of your choosing as long as it is within a reasonable range. Three is for you to tell us everything and we work out something from there. That could be anything from a place to stay, to helping fight in the war we are fighting. Although I don't know if you will be able to do that considering the communication issues, but you are the one who needs to decide what you want to do." As she said this another tablet was brought in and placed in front of me by two people. This version of it was a heavier build and a little bigger too.

I grab it with my front left forepaw and place it in front of me, but I test the weight first. I found that it isn't much heavier that the last one, at least it didn't feel like much in this body. I lay down and write with my left front forepaw. :I don't use this paw as well as I do my right one, so please have patience with me.: I look up to her and she nods. :Thank you, well I have been putting some thought into my language barrier, and I might have come up with a solution.: I have one of me queue move the tip next to my head, and have it expose itself, and I write. :This is called a Queue. Its main purpose is to connect to other queue, and through that connection I am able to send and receive information.:

"So you are able to send and receive information like a computer?" She asked in a questioning tone. I just shrugged my shoulders, and she got up and approached it, but before she could touch it she asked, "My I?"

I write. :No. I might risk losing my eye sight if someone messes with it, so no offense, but I would rather keep that.: I didn't know if that was something unique to the Avatar bodies, but I didn't want to risk that. I watched Halsey get a thoughtful look on her face as she thinks. She is silent for a while, so I take this opportunity to write some more. :I tell you this in the hope that you might be able to make something that I would be able to send signals to, and what I am connected to will turn those signals into sound: _"It would be interesting to learn to talk all over again."_ I had a slight smile at that thought.

Halsey studies this for a moment and says, "How would you know what signals to send, if you are trying to talk. After all you can't say those words in the first place, so you shouldn't be able to produce the proper signals to make those sounds?"

I blink for a moment and think, but I quickly realize that it far more simple than that, so I tell her. :First it isn't that complicated, and second even if it wasn't I would know what signals to send anyway because I was once a human.:

"_At least I think my brain remembers what it was like to be human…"_ I couldn't **really** know, and that wasn't very comforting.

Halsey looked at me with a speculative look and she said, "The whole 'I am from different dimension thing'? It isn't the most convincing argument you know."

I look at her for a moment and write. :As a scientist surely you have heard of the multidimensional theory, or whatever it is called?:

She gives me a queer look and says, "That was completely redone along with several others when we discovered slipspace. It is still discussed in the science community, and as a scientist I am open to the possibility that it is real. How would you prove it though?"

I let out a sigh as I noticed how off topic we had gotten, this would happen when I am talking with my brothers. We are talking about a game and five minutes later we are discussing the pros and cons of… well use your imagination, one time it was along the lines of Halo to pocket watches… I don't know how it happened, it just did. So in an effort to try avoiding something like that I write. :While this is something I do want to sort out, we need to get back to figuring out whether or not we can make something I can talk with. This way we can communicate much easier, if possible.:

Halsey didn't look pleased by that, but as I watched her she seemed to come to a conclusion. "I see your point; this will go much faster if we can get you something to talk with. First though I think we should get you something to eat." My stomach lets out a groan of agreement, and Halsey smiles a little in response. "I think I have your answer." I tried to smile sheepishly. "We will have to work on that as well, but as you said first thing first." She got up and to walk towards the door, and just before she opened it she turned around and said, "I will have the food brought to you because of your shoulder, but once it recovers I will expect you to go out and hunt your food." I nod and wait for my food to be brought to me.

About ten minutes later five dead Moa are brought in, I quickly eat them, but leave one to eat later, after all I don't want to eat too fast, and for the first time in a good while I was for the most part satisfied. I looked around and the marine was just standing there looking at me, I must admit the look on his face from watching me eat almost made me want to stare at him and lick my chops, just once to see his reaction. I decided not to though, in an effort to preserve the peace that is… kind of here.

"_I get that they wanted to make sure I wasn't some type of 'secret agent' or some such, but they really didn't need to starve me."_ I was over it for the most part, I'm a very forgiving person, but I still want to knock around the person who came up with that bright idea, and maybe bite off a limb or two. _"After all with the technology they got here, they can even grow a new one if I mangle their arms or legs a bit too much."_ I let out a dark chuckle and I notice the marine looking at me worriedly now, and I honestly did try to resist, but I just couldn't resist the temptation, after I saw him take a step towards the door slowly.

I get up into a sitting position and look at him. He stares back and is now glancing at the door every once in awhile. I time me shifting positions so that when he looks back he sees me in a crouched position licking my chops, now his steps are a little faster and he started muttering about 'good kitty'. _"He did not just…"_ I listen more closely, and it turns out he was calling me a kitty. _"Okay bud, I wasn't going to further than this, but now let's see what you do when I pounce."_ I glared at him and looked at the distance between us. He is about twelve feet from me and slowly increasing the distance. It would be child's play for me to do it with both sets of legs at full strength, but now it would be difficult to get him, and then you have to account for him running… I knew that if I was going to do this I would have to do it quickly.

So I just before I pounce I reach down to the last Moa and take a quick bite and then jump. The strangled yell he let out as he saw me flying through the air at him was truly priceless; I hoped that they got that on tape. I just missed him, so I reach out with my front right leg and pull him in. Now it did hurt, but not enough that it stopped me from doing this. He let out a scream that was an octave or two higher than his last one, as I pulled him down to the ground in front of me. I then sat my front forelegs over him and made sure no to crush him as I did so.

I just sat there watching as he kept muttering 'good kitty' I sigh as I realize that I have probably made it so he will never go near a cat again. I just push a little down on him every time he says 'good kitty'. He eventually got the idea, and said, "Yo-you don't l-like being c-c-called k-kk-itty h-huh?" I just give him a blank stare as if to say 'no shit' and this is when guards decide to burst into the room, and started yelling about freezing.

I stared at them and they stared at me. It was some time here one of them said, "Oh my god! It is eating Fredy!" Now I could see how that particular person could come to that conclusion, after all I do still have a lot of what looks like fresh blood on my face, and it dripped off of my jaw onto my forelegs and over Fredy. Seeing this I had only one thing to think, and that was nothing really I just couldn't believe the situation this had turned into. With that I heard the sound of guns cocking and strangled yelling from below me, "St-STOP i-it god da-damit!"

Now given the current situation that was the worst thing Fredy could have said, as the person who accused me of eating Fredy yelled, "SHIT! Fredy is still alive! You BASTERED YOUR EATING FREDY ALIVE, I'LL KIL-!" Now I would have ended in a bloody mess, and Fredy probably would have been killed when my corps fell on him, if it hadn't been for the timely intervention of the good Doctor Halsey.

'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

I just stared at her as my mind caught up with my body, and then I looked down at Fredy, then Halsey. I gave a sheepish grin and got off of him slowly so I wouldn't hurt him. I went moved to go over to the spot they set aside for me, but Halsey said, "Spencer! We aren't done here, so I would appreciate it if you just came right back here and sat your ass down." I did so, but I layed down just to mess with her. She glared at me but I didn't waver from her stare. _"You got nothing on my Mother Halsey, no offense but… yeah…"_ I thought while staring right back.

I watched as she sighed and muttered in a voice that was quite enough to not be heard by the others, but it was loud enough for me to hear, "This is why I prefer AIs for company…"

I almost felt a little bad about it, but I decided to keep the grudge up until my shoulder heals. _"Which should be sometime over the next few days, at the rate I am healing."_ I had a noticed improvement in my shoulder, it was very little but it was there.

She looks around and says, "I want this mess cleaned up Marines, and as for you Spencer I want to talk to you, so grab the pad and walk with me." I watched her walk away, and I looked at the group in front of me. I decided that I should get out of here quickly, before they started to yell at each other. Of course I was too late for that, as I had only grabbed the pad with my right back foreleg when they started to argue over who did what. I moved past them quickly as my body would allow and got to the door.

I looked for Halsey outside of the room and I saw her waiting at the end of the hall giving me a glare. I sighed and moved to catch up to her. It didn't take long considering my longer strides, and I had to slow down once I caught up to her. I glanced at her every once in awhile, but I stayed silent mostly because I couldn't talk. So I walked with her, and watched people's faces change as I passed by, it is rather amusing really.

It takes us about twenty minutes of walking at a painfully slow pace for me. I glance down at Halsey for a moment, and she seemed to be walking a little too fast keep up with me. So I slowed down some more, but anymore and I would have to start to pause in between steps because it would be easier. I notice that she slowed down some and she sent me a thankful glance. It was about ten minutes later that I was at the entrance to the base.

I looked as the entrance opens, and the door lets in the slowly fading sunlight of the day, and Halsey turns to me and says, "We are going to be talking out here, so please hold your questions until we get to where we are going and I finish talking." I nod and follow her as she just walks out into the twilight air.

We keep going for about thirty minutes, and my right forelegs are burning by this point with pain. This walk hadn't bothered the rest of my body, but seeing as those limbs are healing currently I was willing to give them some rest, and I was about to stop when Halsey said, "Just a little more and we will be there." I just sigh and push through the pain.

It turned out though that a little more was another five minutes of walking. I was about to stop when she said, "Okay we are here Spencer." She then disappeared through the underbrush and I followed her.

What was on the other side was another lake. It was different from the one that I was swimming in earlier, I could tell because the canyon that I came out of wasn't there. I looked around admiring the view. I went over next to Halsey and layed down I put the pad next to me as I watched the last dregs of sunlight fade from this world. _"It is beautiful… the way the atmosphere here changes the sun set. Sooo different from Earth how could I describe this? It looks the unique atmosphere here on Reach is… almost making the light shimmer and dance with it as it moves."_ I just looked at the truly amazing view and enjoyed the quiet as I waited for Halsey to start first.

After the light disappeared from my view I heard Halsey get up and say, "The reason I brought you here Spencer is to explain your situation, away from prying eyes. What you did earlier just gave me the excuse I needed to do this." I watched her as she turned to me now and continued. "I am going to be honest with you Spencer, things aren't as favorable for you as you or I would like right now. Frankly ONI is hoping that I can turn you into a weapon they can use. They have covered up the incident you made on Earth very well; as far as the rest of Humanity is concerned you don't exist. I am willing to help you, if done right we might have a chance at winning the war, or at least a better one, and you will have a better chance of returning where you came from. I will let you think on this, but I need an answer before we leave to go back."

I watched her as she walked some ten feet away and sat down on the beach. I turned and gazed at the sky that was filled with stars, and a massive gas giant. While looking at the new view I thought, _"Hmmmmm, I guess that my situation just became crap."_ I shrug my shoulders. _"Well if it wasn't before it is now, but what she said… It's odd. If what she said is true than she could be using this opportunity to gain my trust, so she can then turn me into the weapon that ONI wants. On the other hand I also know that while she works for them, she isn't a big fan of ONI. More like she will work because she is one of the few that can give her Spartans a chance. I know that by now the regret from what she did to them is gnawing at her, so… Hmmmmm, what is her angle?"_

"_She could be doing this in hopes that I get deployed with the Spartans, and thus giving them a better chance. Although I am big enough that I wouldn't be able to be realistically be used on a covert mission, more like heavy battle support. So I can see her being honest to help her Spartans and not necessarily give ONI a weapon, but she would give them one to help her Spartans."_

"_As for ONI, well I would be something that can be tossed to the side, but that doesn't make sense. Hood said himself it is far more likely that I am from another alien race, but they still treat me like this? I ended up on Earth without warning, undetected, and I was unarmed. So from their point of view they are probably dealing with a race that is more advanced than the Covenant. After all not even the Covenant got by their detection grid around Earth, but that still begs the question. Why are they treating me like this if they believe that? They only risk war with a race that they think is there and is more capable than the Covenant, but they did give me to Halsey, and she would be a better choice that Ackerson or his ilk."_ I shake my head to clear my thoughts. I look at the sky again, as I let my thoughts take a break for a moment. _"After all I might not get a chance to do this again."_

As I looked at the sky, my mind demanded that I get back to the problem at hand, so I did. _"Well since I can't let myself take a break, might as well just get it over with. Okay let's see… I thought about ONIs motives, then Halseys… or was it Halseys then ONIs… ah there I am. Let's see then there is the fact they are still trying to get information out of me. Well that one is fairly obvious, if I __**am **__right then they got some info on future events, but if I am wrong they get the advantage of the fact that they handed me over to Halsey, and she won't get to the 'good' stuff until later in the training regimen. In the end though it just comes down to the fact that I don't know what the motives are for either party, at least not their __**full**__ agenda."_

"_So I can either run or fight, since it is obvious I can't really get away right now I am going to have to fight in order to keep me with Halsey when the time comes. After all they will eventually figure that I am not going to be rescued by the 'others of my kind', and if I'm not cooperating with Halsey when that time comes… Well if that happens I could get a shot at Ackerson."_ I look from the sky back to Halsey and think, _"Still it comes back to her… and whether or not I chose to believe her…"_ I sigh. _"Not much of a choice though, but __**I**__ will have to live with the consequences."_ I get up and grab the pad. I walk over to her, lay down and start writing.

:I warn you Halsey. The time will come when I will be proven right, and when that time comes. I pray that you have given me reason to keep helping humanity, and not reason to destroy it. I don't tell you this so that it is a threat hanging over your head, but so you know that while I will help you fight, you will need to show me that all you have worked for is worth saving. **I** will be the one to suffer at the hands of your kind, no matter what I tell you or do. So tread carefully, and show me what is worth saving.: I knew that it wasn't the wisest thing to do, but I knew that if I didn't make my point clear now… well then I would regret it later. That and show her the difference between me and her Spartans, I'm not some young child that has been kidnapped, but someone that will do all possible to escape and even be killed in the process if necessary.

Halsey looked at me for a minute, studying me, and then she looked to the sky and said, "I am going to tell you this once only Spencer, so listen carefully." She had my full attention. "ONI can do more than kill you, I tell you this because it **is** a threat hanging over your head."

I chucked and wrote. :I already knew that, but thank you for being honest. I also am pretty sure that ONI is getting the whole conversation between us right now, but that doesn't matter. I knew what was going to happen once I knew where I was, I know that my new road in life is one that I would have give long and hard though to before saying yes or no. However I know that I would have chosen to go with it in the end.: I look back to the sky and let out a tired sigh.

Halsey said, "Why?" It was a simple question, but to answer it would give ONI something they would hang over me and use to twist my arm… well leg, into doing what they want, but I knew that I would help them fight anyway.

I turned back to Halsey and gave her a tired smile, or at least as good of one as I could give with this body, and wrote. :That is simple Halsey. My nature wouldn't allow me to let others suffer when I could do something about it.: I clench my front legs paws. :And with this body I can help the people here, but only if the people here will accept my help, and the responsibility that comes with that.: I look at her and wait for her response.

Halsey looks right back, and studies me for some time, and then says, "You are an interesting character Spencer, and I hope that we can work together to do what is needed. So I will give you what you need to fight, but first I think we need to work on your communication first." She gets up and says. "Well time to go back." She starts to walk back to the compound, but I didn't move. She turned back to me after she noticed I wasn't following and said, "Well are you coming?"

I sigh and write. :Did you have any of the Spartans cover you on this little jaunt?: I look to her and she nods. I roll my eyes but continue writing anyway. :Okay than can you have them carry this pad and you can ride on my back. I will be much faster.:

She looks at me oddly, but turns to the underbrush and calls out, "Kelly, Linda, Jorge, John. Would you come out now?" And come out they did. It was awe inspiring to watch them do so. A little geeky, but when you consider that they walked through the underbrush with full tactical gear without making a sound… Well it's not so geeky then. I watch them as they approach, and Halsey says, "John I want you to carry this for Spencer here, I am going to be riding on his back to get to base quicker." With that I saw her approach, so quickly wrote one last thing.

:I won't mind if you grab onto my queue at their base, but please avoid the ends.: With that I bent down and heard Halsey give a slight chuckle after she read what I wrote. I felt her get on and it took a minute for her to balance herself, and then she patted me on the shoulder. I took that as the signal to start moving, so I got up slowly and it was now she grabbed my queues close to the base. It didn't hurt so I just moved towards the base.

On the way I didn't hear anything from Halsey as she road on my back except for the occasional course correction that is. I admit it did make me feel like a pack animal, but I didn't want to put that much more weight on my right side again. Not being able to use both front right forelegs really puts a strain on the one I'm not using to carry the pad. In the end it took half the time to get back, and I was happy I got to catch the look on the guards face as I came closer. It must have been an interesting sight to see Halsey riding on my back with two Spartans on each side of me.

Halsey must have felt me chuckling because she said to me, "Be nice now Spencer." I shook my head to the side a little as we walked forward, and I stopped at the gate to let Halsey off. As she got off I am sure I caught a look of disappointment on her face, but I couldn't be sure. As the door opened Halsey turned to John and said, "John I would like you to escort Spencer here to his room, while you are there I would like it if you put the pad and-" She reached into her pocket and walked over to John. It turns out that there is a slot in the side of the pad for the receiver pad, as she places it there while John holds it. "in the room with him. After that you can do what you can go back to your group or talk to him, whatever you want to do." With that the door finished opening and Halsey walked in.

I looked at the group of Spartans that walked in and followed John. As we walked through the base though, I noticed that the Spartans didn't break up and go their separate ways. _"Well I just hope that they put it there and go at this point."_ I thought. After all I didn't expect some conversation to really happen between us. The group of non Spartans that can actually have a conversation with one of them without it being a military discussion is **very** small.

As we got to my new room I watched as they opened the door and they all filed in. It was then that I knew that if it was possible, I would have a 'sweat drop', as they call it, on the back of my head. I didn't expect them to kill me or something like that; rather they were just sticking together and covering their leader. I walked in after shaking my head and went straight to my 'bed' area. It was really just a lowered section in the floor that I could lay in.

I layed down and it was then I noticed that I didn't hear them leave, I was able to hear them walking once we entered the base, and one of them was approaching me. I looked up and it was the Chief, he placed the pad in front of me and took the receiving pad, and I thought, _"Well this is either going to be __**very**__ bad or somewhat good… I don't know which"_ I was a little confused, but it was when John had backed away from me and was standing with his comrades he spoke.

"Will you become a problem?" It was a straight forward and simple question, but warning signals were going off in my head. The reason was that I knew that he was more or less asking whether or not he will have to kill me.

"_Well shit it is going __**verrrryyy**__ bad right now."_ I take a moment to calm myself and then reach out to write. :I will cooperate with you and your people, as I had said several times before. The only time that **I** will fight against you or your people is when they are trying to torture me to get what they want. I'm not your people's guinea pig, despite what they think. I will even help you fight your war, so please don't put me in a situation that I would have to fight you. I know that I would lose, but it doesn't mean that I won't fight.:

I couldn't tell if that had been the response they were looking for, but after they had all read that I noticed that they started making small subtle movements, and I realized that I was witnessing what the Spartans developed to communicate to each other without talking. I couldn't remember what they called it right off, but it was interesting to watch. Eventually they stopped moving and John said, "We frankly don't trust you, but we will give you a chance. Don't waste it Spencer." With that they moved to leave, but I wrote one last thing.

:Thank you. I know that your trust isn't easily earned, but I will do what I can to earn it. So good night to you all.: I figured that I could at least be polite. I noticed that they seemed to hesitate. I was then I realized that they didn't really know how to respond to that, after all their training didn't include people interaction. So I wrote. :You don't have to respond, I realize that you are probably uncomfortable with this as is, so why don't we just end it here?:

They took a moment to figure out what to do, but they eventually left. Before John left though he came over and placed the receiving pad into the writing pad and then picked them up and placed them next to the door, and then left.

I watched as he left, and couldn't help but think, _"Well that went a lot better than I was hoping for, but I'm not going to complain."_ With that I get up and look for some way to turn the lights off. I look in all of the obvious places, but it wasn't there. So I gave up and figured I have been sleeping during the day for how long anyway. Just before I got into my laying spot I noticed a large piece of plastic, I look at it and it turns out to be a cover to a switch. _"Well that figures…"_ I think as I look at it. It has a large opening on the opposite side of its hinges. I figure it's where I put one of my claws to open it, and I turn out to be right. So I turn off the lights and close the cover. Then I lay down and eventually I go to sleep.

* * *

I must have over slept because I woke up to Halsey poking me with a rod that was about as long as her. The annoying part was that she was poking me on my nose. I give her one of those glares you use when you have been woken from a pleasant dream. Halsey says with a light smirk, "Have a nice dream?"

My glowering look turned into a full blown glare, but I stop and roll my eyes. I slowly get up and stretch, but I stop when I get to my right side. It still hurts but it feels a lot better than it did before, so I slowly stretch that part of me. I then smelled some meat, and looked over towards it, to find five more Moa. I give Halsey a smile, and move towards them, but Halsey said, "Spencer." I look over to her. "Please wait for me to leave before you start." I chuckle, but sit down and wait. She moves towards the door, and just before she leaves she turns around and said, "I know that you can eat quickly, but please try not to make a mess Spencer, and when you finish I will be waiting outside." I give her a smile, and she just turned around and left.

I look back to the Moa bodies and think, _"You know… I honestly never thought that I would be eating one of these things much less in a Thanator body one day."_ I shake my head and move forward to eat. I was fairly hungry despite me eating yesterday, and I found that a little odd, but figured it was because my body was healing. It was then I noticed that I needed to do my business again. _"Well I just hope they let me out because I didn't notice any bathroom areas that would fit me on the way in."_

I just get up and move towards the door. I grab the pad before I leave and then I leave. _"After all I will need this to tell her that I will need to get out for a little while, and I could use that lake to wash myself."_ I sniff that air around me and cringe. _"Yeah definitely need to wash myself."_

Halsey looked as I exited and said, "Not a very clean eater, are you?" I just gave her a flat stare, and put the pad down. She got the idea and grabbed the receiving pad. And then I wrote down.

:To be frank, if I don't get to go do my business soon you are going to have a rather large mess on your hands.: I looked up and she didn't really seem to care, but I could see a slight turning of color on her face, almost like she was sick. I managed to keep my face straight, but on the inside I was laughing at her. _"That is right Halsey I __**do**__ need to use the restroom too!"_ With that I had my fun so I stopped, and looked at her, waiting.

She looked at me for a little bit and then said, "Yes well you had better make this quick. I will be waiting for you over in my new lab, don't worry you will fit. It was made with you in mind, as for getting there after you're done, I will have a marine waiting for you outside the gate." I nod my head and she then quickly turned and left. I decided to leave the pad, seeing as I won't be needing it since I will be by myself.

"_Well… she is punctual with me if nothing else."_ I thought with an amused tone. I had a slight smile on my face as I moved out of the base. As the door opened I noticed someone approaching behind me. It turned out to be one of the Spartans, and I almost groaned. I wished I had the pad with me right now to ask if this was really necessary, but I didn't so I figured I might be able to out run the Spartan in question. _"If I was healed I could, but as is…"_ I scowl at the beautiful day out in front of me, I felt like it was mocking me as I walked out.

"_Well… better to get this over with."_ I wanted to see how fast I could go injured, so I set out to do just that. I started slow, and worked myself up. I didn't know how fast I was going when I topped out, but it might have been around eighteen or twenty miles an hour. I didn't keep that speed for very long, only about twenty seconds. I came to a stop, and looked around. I had moved along the side of the road that leads to the base, so I wouldn't get lost. I feel my right forelegs, to see if I hurt them in that run. I took my time in flexing them wanting to make sure, and found that besides the burning from the run, they were fine. Although I was somewhat worried because the rest of my body wasn't burning like those limbs were, but once again I figured it was because of the injures.

I look behind me to see the Spartan roughly twenty feet behind me, and he or she didn't look winded. It wasn't surprising really; they could sustain higher speeds for longer times without much of an issue in that armor. _"Well if I don't take care of this now I will be wishing I did later."_ With that in mind, I did my best to put the Spartan out of my mind as I headed into the forest surrounding the road. I kept going in for around three minutes at a nice walking pace, and I figured that I was far enough from the road to not worry about anyone being able to tell it's here.

Once done I headed back to the road, and ignored the Spartan as I moved. When I got close enough to the base, I turned to the path that Halsey took me on that leads to the lake. It takes me awhile, but I figure out my way back. Once there I write in the dirt next to the lake. :Don't worry I am just going to wash myself, do I will be back in a few minutes.: With that I take one deep breath and run into the water. I swim under the water out towards the middle for a little bit, and then wash myself thoroughly.

I took a little longer than a few minutes, but I figured that they were more than able to see I wasn't leaving with their satellites in orbit without too many issues. Once done washing myself I head back, and pop up about forty feet from where I entered. The Spartan walks over as I shake most of the water off, and once he or she is close enough to say something she or he says, "That was a little longer than a few minutes." It was the Chief.

"_That makes earlier a smidgen less embarrassing, but not really. After all it could have been Kelly or Linda, thank you whatever brought me here it wasn't."_ I look to him and grin, and then I write in the dirt. :I knew that in the end there is no way for me to get away, so why run? Plus, here I can have some fun working with.: Here I had to move over to the right for more space. :Halsey. If I do this right, I can help with the war.:

I didn't write anything else, and John didn't seem to want to say anything else, so I started back towards the base. I took it at a leisurely pace back, but I decide to start moving faster when Halsey came to mind. _"A woman doesn't like being kept waiting after all, it doesn't matter the situation… most of the time."_ I got up to what would be a light jog. I would have been faster, but the injured legs and all that.

I arrived soon enough, and as Halsey said there was a marine waiting for me at the gate. It turned out to be a female marine and she didn't say anything while she brought me to Halsey. Once there, I nodded my head to her in thanks, she didn't respond, but I really didn't expect her to. So I walk in to find a rather large lab in side. There was all of your usual lab stuff, and a whole bunch of stuff that I couldn't recognize; there was also a section that looked like a exercise room with a lot of monitoring stuff.. All in all it was very laby.

"You took your time." Halsey said from my three o'clock. She was working on this weird device that had a tube coming out of it, and I had no idea what it would be used for, and I kind of didn't want to find out. "Well get over here, I don't have all day." I walk over carefully, making sure not to knock over something by accident. I managed to get there, only to bump a desk next to me. This sent something I couldn't see down to the floor. It sounded like glass, and Halsey looked over to me with a glare on her face. Now while she didn't have anything on my Mother, I knew that she was rather pissed, so I carefully sat down and made sure to move as little as possible.

"Next time you feel the need to knock my coffee off a table, **don't**." I just nodded my head once and she let up on the glare after that. She walked over to the wall, and there was some type of dispenser there. I looked around and noticed that there was one every fifty feet or so. She came back with something that looked like paper towels, and with a sigh cleaned it up. Once done she looked over to me and said, "Next time please be more careful." I just nod my head and she then turns back to the device she was working on.

I wait for a while and I was about to get up to look at stuff when Halsey turned from her work and said, "Okay Spencer. This is the device that I have been working on to help with our communication problems." I look at it with a suspicious look as she continues. "I have made this to receive signals from you, and make sounds from those signals. Now this-" She grabs the tube and holds it up. "will connect to your queue. I made it so it can only receive signals, when you told me about the possibility of you going blind I didn't want to risk it. So I designed it so it automatically disconnects in the middle if it senses any electricity going the wrong way. So could you stop looking at it like that?"

I stopped giving it a suspicious look and just nodded. "Good. Now if you would?" It was obvious what she wanted so I moved forward and placed my right queue on the table next to the device. Halsey walked over to it and grabbed it, and she slowly moved them closer together.

I suddenly got the image of a mad scientist putting the two power connections together, kind of like in one of those cartoons. _"Not the best image to come to mind right now Spencer."_ I take a deep breath and let it slowly out as I feel my queue come into contact with the tube. I almost jerked in surprise as I felt the tendrils inside my queue move to connect to the offered tube. _"__**That**__ felt __**very**__ weird."_ I shook my head as I sorted out the new feelings. It felt like I was supposed to feel something with the connection, but I didn't. _"My body is probably expecting to be hooked up to another living being right now. Hope the connection sticks."_

"No pain right?" Halsey asks. I shake my head no. She then starts to look at the device and says while doing so, "I want you to try saying hello through the connection. I don't expect it to work the first time, but you should get the hang of it soon enough." I nod my head again and try. A garbled sound comes through the speakers connected to the device, and Halsey said, "Well I didn't expect it to do even that at first, so keep it up. I will monitor you from here."

* * *

This went on for about four hours before I finally managed a simple hello. _"Finally!"_

"Well that took a little longer than I thought, but I now have the proper calibrations needed to interpret the signals you are giving to the machine." She looks at me and says. "I want you to say, the letters in the alphabet. This will be a give the machine what it needs to get the rest done."

I give her a glare as I think, _"And why didn't we do this before?"_ But I get to what she told me to do. I had that done in about a minute; I wanted to give the machine no reason to misinterpret the signals I sent it by them being too close together. Now I knew that the chances of that are slim, but I didn't want to take any chances.

Still looking at the screen Halsey presses a button and a device on the table next to me opens, and as it does so Halsey said, "Okay Spencer, the device opening next to you will show words in the dictionary. We are going to spend a few hours every day from now on having you go through the dictionary. We will start from a and make our way to z. When a word appears on the screen I want you to try to send the signal for it to the machine. It should get it on the first try, now that I have calibrated it to the right settings, but I will be monitoring it while we do this every day. We should finish in a week or so, but no promises." She turned to look at me. "Do you understand?" I nodded my head. "Good. Now let's get to work. The sooner you start talking the better."

"_You don't know how much I want to get this over with Halsey. You __**really**__ don't know."_ With that in mind I threw myself into the work because the quicker we did this the better.

* * *

As it turned out Halsey wanted to get it done just as much as me, and as a result we spent most of the day working just on that. My schedule went like this: Wake up and head over to the lab, before that I took care of anything like hunger or using the great outdoors to take care of my business, and yes I was accompanied by a Spartan, for a time. I was and am thankful they don't want to make small talk during those little walks.

I was back to what I was sure is my body's 'normal' eating schedule, which was me eating about one thousand pounds of food every other day. After that Halsey and I spent roughly twelve hours working on the 'translation device' and then took an hour break to take care of bodily matters if needed, but that was more for Halsey than me. Then we would spend that rest of the time working on it until I got too tired to continue.

It went by rather quickly, or it seemed to. The 'largest' problem though was figuring out a voice for me to use. It was some time before we came to our decision, as Halsey was rather content to keep my voice as a young child, but she eventually changed it. I got it as close to my original voice as I could, but it wasn't. I didn't let it bother me long though, as I had another problem that caused some rather embarrassing moments for me, but I could tell Halsey was just keeping herself from letting a full blown grin come over her.

You see as I was learning to 'speak' with my mind, I had to learn to keep my real thoughts, and my 'speaking thoughts' separate. It was troublesome to say the least. The most memorable incident was after I had finally finished going through the dictionary with Halsey, and I was speculating on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches vs miracle whip and then that turned into a rant somehow about how the spork was ignored, and finally that turned into a discussion with myself about possible armor designs that I could use. Yes I am **very **random when I chose to be, my family has made that quite clear to me, at least some of them think that.

The problem wasn't that Halsey heard it, plausible deniability and all that, it was that she had recorded it, and was keeping it on her person in order to as she put it, "Use it for reference material for future designs concerning your armor." I called bullshit, claiming she just didn't need the whole thing for that, and she would be able to come up with something far better in her sleep. She responded with some bs about needing to know the thought process that lead up to said thoughts, it was a weak excuse at best, but we both knew that.

From then on I gave her a light hearted glare every time we met and she would give me the slightest of smirks. _"She even has the audacity to take out a memory chip and wave it around every once in a while too! It probably isn't even the real one…"_ I was less than pleased with it, but I just let it go. We still greeted each other like that though; it has almost become some kind of odd tradition. On another note, Halsey said that she had been working on some rigging, this way I could have the 'translator' device on myself where ever I go, and that is pretty much it as far as this week has gone.

* * *

I got up and stretched again. I look around at what has become my new surroundings, and think, _"You know what… I can believe it but I am starting to miss the great outdoors."_ It was rather odd for me to think it because I have been living inside my whole life. A grin comes across my face as a stray thought goes through my mind. _"Except for when I would terrorize my Mom, by going to play out in the snow naked, at the age of three or four. Yeah she still teases me about that."_ Then the grin leaves my face when I realize that she won't be teasing me with things like that anymore.

I let out a tired sigh, and get up. _"Let it go Spencer, let it go…"_ I put that out of my mind and I get up to go hunt some food. Fortunately Halsey had let up on the Spartans accompanying me seeing as they couldn't keep up with me when I got up to my full speed, I don't know how fast I am moving but it feels like it is faster than fifty in open areas. So seeing that even Kelly couldn't keep up with me they pulled off the escort after I ditched them the second time and came back.

When I get to the door though I find that Halsey is there waiting for me, and says, "Your hunting can wait. Right now I want to make sure the rigging I had made for the T.D. works right." I thought for a moment and then I remembered Halsey decided to call the translator device T.D. instead, I don't know why but I didn't really care. I nod my head and follow her as she moved through the base.

When we got to the lab, she directed me to the other side, which I hadn't got to go to just yet because we were working on the T.D. so much. It was like a gym, but it also had more space to move in then the lab section and the equipment was big enough for me. I had wondered why they hadn't tested me, but I figured that it had to with the fact that they wanted to get me talking first. In there was some other lab workers that I had seen over the week, and they were arranging some gear on a table.

As we got into the room Halsey said, "Okay Spencer I want you to lay down in front of the table." I figured that this would be better to get over with quick, so I just did it. Then the other workers started to move the pieces onto me. There was only three pieces, but one of them was rather large. "This part was designed to sit on your back. It will hold the T.D. and its power source, which will last for eight hours before depleting. The rings on top of it are similar to guides for your queue. It will go through the ring and curl back up to the device and connect in the back." At this point they had gotten the big piece on my back. "To keep the queue connected we are placing some rings on your queue that will act as holds for your queue."

They had finally gotten it placed right and it wasn't that uncomfortable. "The other two parts are the straps that will go under you and keep the T.D. on you. I had it made tough enough to take the damage that you will be putting it through. Though this is just a test bed for when we make you your armor, so when you take it out don't be afraid of breaking it. I would rather you put it through its paces now then have it break later." They had me stand up so I can get the straps put on. I did it slowly, not wanting the thing to fall off of me. It felt very uncomfortable when they started to go under me, so they could get the straps in the right place. To my relief they finished getting the straps in the right place quickly and now there was only one last thing to do, get my queue connected to the T.D.

"Okay I will take care of this last part." Halsey stated. She walked forward and said, "Spencer it will be easier if you lay down, and do you mind if I climb up?" I shake my head and lay down so she can get on my back. I feel her climb up and fed my queue through the hole and connect me to the machine. I felt nothing when the connection was made. I almost got up to use the pad to ask what was wrong, but I stayed down and wondered what was happening.

She then feds the other queue through and I must admit that I don't know why she is doing that, I would only need one of my queue to use the T.D.. I feel it connect and I felt… well nothing. I try to talk only for nothing to come out, and that is when Halsey gets off of my back and says, "I haven't engaged the software for the T.D. I wanted to go through a system check to make sure it is working."

"_Well that explains why I felt nothing, it isn't really on."_ Halsey had informed me that if I was connected to it, and she wanted to perform a systems check, the tube connected to my queue would temporarily be manually disconnected internally. Once done it would reconnect and engage.

She turns to the lab people and said, "Start the system diagnostic." I heard one of Halsey minions over at a mobile control consol say yes and press a few buttons. I heard the thing hum for a few seconds and then go quiet. I looked over to Halsey, but she was going over a screen. She hummed as she scrutinized the information rolling on the screen and after a minute said, "Okay Spencer, just a moment and we can have a real conversation for once." With that she pressed a button and I hear the T.D. hum for a moment. Then I felt that now familiar tingle in my queue as the tube reconnects internally and I am finally ready to talk.

"Hmmmmm…" I look at Halsey. "Well this will have to do." Some of the workers freeze in place when they hear me say that.

Halsey didn't even look from her screen as she went over the data and said, "Don't make me turn it off."

I look over to the minions and one of them looks almost like he needs to sit down, so I tell him. "You know if you need to sit you can, right?" He looks over at me and sits right there. I blink and turn back to Halsey and ask her, "You aren't that bad… right?"

Halsey looks around at her minions and waves her hand; they immediately jump right back into action. I just look for a minute as I watch the lab workers get the gear put away. Halsey then says, "Okay Spencer now that you can communicate, I have a few questions."

I respond with, "Shoot."

"I want to start with your… test." I nod. "What were you doing in the hall for the forty one and a half minutes in the main hall? You were heading for a trap and then you stop. We have our suspicions, and some people are very interested in the answer."

I think back for a moment, but I know that there really is only one thing that she would be talking about. I grin and say, "I have an extrasensory ability that allows me to. Hmmmmm, how to describe it… Well more or less I view the world around me, when I close my eyes, in a goldish view. It is hard to describe, but I am able to see, in a sense, past objects and all around me. It like the rest of my senses they are still adjusting to… whatever… I guess configuration because I don't know." I shrug my shoulders for emphasis.

Halsey had been typing on a computer the whole time taking notes, at least I think she is. "You know if you keep up that pace you will be needing a new keyboard soon here, right?" I said with humor, but I don't think it was received that way.

She finally looked up at me and said, "I had it made special." She types a few more things in and continues. "Why does it take you so long to use it?" She is still looking at her computer.

I shudder at the phantom pain; I knew there was only one reason for that. I had left my Flow Trance ability alone for the last week, in the hope that my quills would recover from sensing whatever was in slipspace. I shake my head and say, "What happened there, was and is the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life." I look at Halsey. "What do you think would happen to you if you used an extra sensory ability that senses energy in slipspace?"

Here Halsey looks from her screen to me and asks, "How sure are you that you are seeing energy?"

"Well I have had some time to think about it and I am pretty damned sure that I am. What I see isn't just in the life around me, but flowing everywhere, and what ever the energy interacs with I am able to see." I try to explain.

"Okay." She types some more info in to her computer. "Would you be willing to demonstrate this later?"

"I won't be attacked?" I ask with a grin.

"And why do you think you will be attacked?" She looked honestly curious.

My grin gets wider. "Well I know that some people are** very** interested in me, from what you have told me. So I know that Ackerson, Parangosky, or their ilk want their claws on me, but I am then handed over to you. Not only do these people hate you, but they also hate, for the most part, what you have made. Thus the… test… earlier, and if they got a chance they would rather see you fail then allow you to succeed turning me into a weapon. So it would make sense for them to try to push for a test that has a chance of killing me, rather than a test that involves me finding some stuff. Nope they will.-" and a thought struck me, and it wasn't a good one. "Are you designing an armor system for me?" I needed to know this.

She blinked and answered, "Yes, but you already knew that."

"_Son of a bitch! I can't believe I forgot that…"_ I thought. It actually wasn't as good as it sounded, when you consider my situation, and I explained this to Halsey. "Under normal circumstances I would be honestly thrilled, but I know that ONI is going to have you build it with a self destruct device." Halsey looked like she was going to say something but I steamed rolled her. "I know that the self destruct would be needed if I died, but I also know that give my unique situation, whatever is going to be used to make my suite go boom, is going to be used to force me to do what they want. And please don't pretend like they won't-' Once again cutting her off. "we **both** know they will."

"Whatever suit you make for me is going to be able to do more than a little bit more than the Spartans. If for nothing else, the sheer amount of room you have to work with now, when you consider my body. In order to power it however you are going to have to stick one bigger reactor, or several smaller ones, and I already know that those can create a big enough boom to leave nothing of the Mjolnir system behind. So please don't take it the wrong way if I'm not exactly eager to use the suit you make for me. It will be a death trap as far as I am concerned."

After my little rant Halsey just sat there and looked at me for a few minutes, and seeing as she won't say anything I continue. "I also know that I was only fortunate enough to get into your care because Hood thinks that there might be some more of my kind coming to pick me up, but I can guarantee that they won't be coming. Once again I will cooperate, but I not exactly eager to when I know someone will have their hand on the button that will make me go boom." I watch Halsey for a little bit, once again she says nothing. I sigh and get up, she doesn't stop me.

Before I leave I turn back and look her in the eyes. "I am sorry for blowing up like that, but we both know I am right." I said, and the worst part is that while I was looking her in the eyes, I could tell that I was right. I sigh and leave, and Halsey still said nothing as she watched me leave.


	7. Chapter 7 Things Will Change

Things Will Change

AN:I know that it has been a while, but I want you guys to know that I am still working on the story. I had run into a few... troubles when it came to the plot and information that I couldn't know in the story and the information that I know now (i.e. Halo 4 and so on) So now that is taken care of I set out to do a better job with my writing after I went over my earlier work, and trust I cringed a few times but I guess that is what I get for typing and publishing my work so quickly.

Typing the story out will be much easier and faster now that the problems with the plot are fixed (went through at least eight completely different versions of this) I will be putting chapters out faster, but not as fast as I was earlier.

And I owe an apology to reaper 41, I am sorry I didn't get this out as fast as I said I would, the plot for the story went sideways and so did my life for a while there.

I completely forgot for the previous chapters, but here it is now: I do not own any thing related to Halo and/or Avatar, and make no money what so ever off of my writing. I do how ever own the characters that I come up with... and myself as well (NOTE: this will be the only disclaimer in the story).

Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

"Maweypeyyu" = Talking  
"_Mìftxele_" = Thinking  
**nìawnomum **= Emphasis on talking, thinking, or otherwise  
:Time is power: = Written dialog

* * *

As I was walking out of the lab I paused as I thought about going back and talk my situation over with Halsey, but I knew that I was too frustrated with the situation right now to go back and talk peacefully. So I continued on my way out of the lab, and then out of the base.  
As I neared the entrance to the base I noticed that there was an odd lack of guards and people. I found that odd, but I thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that everyone was informed that I was dangerous right now and to steer clear of me, so I didn't put much more thought into it.

As I turned the last corner before exiting the base I saw one of the Spartans standing at the exit. "_Well if she was going to kill me, I wouldn't have even realized I was dead so… nothing to really worry about… I hope._" I thought as I approached who I was sure was Linda; after all I haven't seen any of the other Spartans with a sniper rifle since I got here.

Once I got close enough for her to hear my voice I asked, "I guess you're my 'escort' then?"

I waited for a moment for her to answer, but she didn't. "Okay could you tell me if your Linda or not at least?" I asked, but I got the feeling that she wasn't happy, not angry either mind you, but I could tell that she, if this one was female, didn't like the question. There was an awkward moment of silence where I almost decided to just continue on past her… him… I didn't know, and short of going into my trance I couldn't tell and I didn't really want to do that, privacy and all that.

I look at her with an odd look and ask, "Could you, at the absolute minimum, tell me if your female or not? It is honestly creepy not knowing if you're female or male, but thinking that you're Linda. I'm not sure of that on the other hand because the other Spartans do use sniper rifles, but Linda almost always has one on hand. She is also… extremely skilled with the sniper rifle…"

Even with her armor on I could tell that she was uncomfortable with my rambling so I brought it to a close. "Anyway the point is that I find it very creepy to think of you as female, with the small chance of you being male, or thinking of you as male with the big chance that you are female. Sooo… Yeah…" It wasn't the most spectacular finish to my little ramble, but it could have been worse I think.

I waited for what felt like a few minutes, but there was no answer to my long winded request, so I stood up with a sigh and started walking out while saying, "Well if you are going to come with me cou-" But I stopped mid sentence and stride as the Spartans spoke.

"I'm female." It was soft spoken, but there was no mistaking the confidence and power her voice carried. Soft spoken she may be, but she most definitely is not unheard.

Turning towards the newly dubbed female I nodded my head and said, "Thank you for trusting me with that." I gave her a small smile, and continued. "We will get to our destination a lot quicker if you hop on for a ride so…" With that I get a little closer and lay down on the ground so it would be easier for her to get on.

She walked closer and then jumped straight up and landed on my back. Interestingly enough it didn't hurt, it was more like one of my brothers just hit me on the back but not hard enough to hurt me, so I didn't mention it as I said, "Just make sure to grab on at the base of my queues, and hold on tight." I knew that I wanted to go to the beach, but I wanted to just run for a while, after the newly dubbed female grabbed my queue, I did just that.

* * *

I ran for a good hour and a half, before I decided that I needed to head for the beach to enjoy the view there. It didn't take long to get there at a full run, as I had decided to just follow the main road for a while before diving into the forest. I was reduced to a little under one fourth my top speed in there, but I decided to used the trees to practice my dodging.

I will say that I almost ran into a few trees, but I was going slow enough that I was able to stop before I hit something. If I didn't have my passenger to consider I know that I would have gone faster, but I also know I would have been hitting trees as a result of that extra speed, so I didn't complain.

By the time I got to the beach I was breathing fairly hard, but I wasn't winded, so I laid down on the sand enjoying the warmth of the sand as I waited for Linda, at least I am sure it is Linda after all it could be Kelly, to get off of my back.

Laying there I realized that my silent companion wasn't going to remove herself from my back. I almost asked her to get off but I decided not to because the contact was… nice pleasant even. I can't describe it any other way, I know that nothing could happen with how I now am. I am acutely aware that I nave no chance of having a family now, and words can't describe how painful that is.

I know that if I didn't let my dreams of a family, and all that it represented, go I would be consumed by my hate and anger that I had for whatever brought me here and myself for somehow catching the interest of whatever being brought me here. I knew that if I wanted to stay sane I needed to create a new goal too throw my self towards.

Now goal my is to help the U.N.S.C. come out of this war better than they would have without my help. However its almost always easier to say something than to do something, and unfortunately for me this one doesn't fall into the easy category.

And in this case I needed to learn to let go of the future as well as the past.

* * *

The sun was getting ready to set by the time I finished thinking about my situation and I knew what I needed to be done now, so I took a deep breath and continued watching the sun set.

Watching the sun set I couldn't help but think about my family. It was painful to do think about them so before I got too far I slowly pushed the memories back, letting it slowly go away. After that was done I watched as the last remnants of day disappeared before my eyes.

"Beautiful, don't you think so." I said. I didn't expect an answer and I didn't get one as I looked up to the stars, wondering why I was here.  
A few minutes later I started to get up, and felt my tag along grab onto my queue as I did a few stretches. Once done I started to slowly move towards the base, and a future that I didn't know.

* * *

Once at the base entrance I saw the guards take a few glances at the Spartans on my back, but they quickly stopped.

I smiled at that, and turning to them I asked, "Can you tell me where Halsey is? I need to speak to her immediately."

They looked at each other for a moment, but before either could move to find out my Spartan tag along said, "She is still in her lab Spencer."

I nod and say, "Thanks anyways guys, and thank you as well…" Not knowing her name I just left it at that, but it did feel slightly awkward, so I left for the lab.

As I walked through the base I wondered if Halsey would even listen, but I figured she would, despite the facade she is putting up. Once there I noticed that the door wouldn't allow me to enter with my passenger still there so I crouched down so it would be easier for her to get off, and once she pushed off of my back she walked into the lab.

Following her got to Halsey quickly enough and noticed that she was working on the designs for my suit. Looking at her I asked, "Why are you making the designs for that when we both know it wont be built?"

Halsey stopped and looked at me for sometime and then said, "So you finally figured it out." She seemed different after saying that and I noticed a hardness in her eyes that wasn't there before and I knew without a doubt that I was talking to the real Halsey.

I sighed and said, "Well it wasn't that hard to figure out. I was just being naive and hoping that you guys wouldn't put me through a gauntlet of test to find out if I'm too much of threat." I here so I could look over to the main screen. On it was the designs for the armor that they were supposedly going to build for me.

Turning back to her I continued, "A shame it will never see the light of day, but that is the nature of things that dwell in the darkness. That isn't why I came here however, I need to speak to Lord Hood and I want it to be face to face." I watched her to she if I could get anything from her facial cues, but there was almost nothing that I could see except for the slightest widening of the eyes that I would have missed if I wasn't paying attention.

After a few more moments she asked, "Why?"

I took a deep breath and said, "I… well… simply put I know how to get to the Halo called Installation Four, and I am not going to say any thing more about it because I don't want the facts being… warped or intercepted be listing ears." Once again I was watching, but this time there wasn't a single movement to betray what she was thinking.

Leaning back into her chair she asked, "What proof do you have of this and why didn't you say anything before hand?"

I grimaced as she said that and said, "I didn't want to change things too much. Some things should happen, but frankly I don't know what is coming after my knowledge on events ends. And I know from what I didn't see things are going to get much worse than they are now. I honestly don't know how bad, but my opinion is that people will wish for the simple days of war with the Covenant when the time comes."

I took a deep breath and pausing for a moment I wondered if I should say anything at all, but I knew that what was here on Reach was the quickest way to get it through their thick skulls that what I am telling them is the truth, regardless of how I came to know it.

"As for my proof… well I frankly don't want to say anything about that just yet, I don't want listing ears to think about getting the prize for there own uses. That and you wont be able to use it anyway, the item in question emits a type of radiation that is rather extreme."

"How... extreme is the radiation?" Halsey asked.

I thought about it for a few seconds and said, "First off you should know it is made by the Forerunners and from what I know it would kill your Spartans within two to three days if I remember correctly. That is when they are inside there armor and it is inside a Pelicans radiation chamber… I think its called that anyway."

She hummed for a moment in thought before asking, "Do you know what it is capable of?"

"Well… I guess telling you that is okay… it can manipulate time, space, and slipspace. It is small enough to be carried around by one person and it changes its shape depending on what is doing, and I wont say anything else on the subject."

She looked at me for a few minutes and too be honest it was becoming quite uncomfortable when she said, "And you wont say anything else unless you are talking to Lord Hood?"

"Face to face yes, and I wont be fooled by a stand in, I might not be use to this body, but it has an amazing sense of smell and I will recognize his. I don't mean to offend you Halsey, but I have to be careful who I give my knowledge to and believe me you and the Spartans will be here when I tell him, it's one of my requirements."

She seemed surprised or intrigued by this if the raising of her eyebrow was any indication. "As for security… well if your that worried I will let my self be chained to the ground, as long as I am able to stretch I will be okay." I was wondering how she would take that and the other eyebrow was probably about as close as I will ever come to seeing her looking genuinely surprised.

"Well that will be up to Lord Hood. So for now why don't we get back to working on this?" She said gesturing to the big screen.

"Errr… not that I'm complaining or anything, but why are we even working on the suit for me when it will never be made, and there is still the matter of you guys using it to force me to do stuff…" I trialed off, giving her a look of genuine curiosity all the while.

"You would have to ask Lord Hood to find out why he wants it designed, now do you want to continue this or go to sleep?"

"Hmmmm… I will help you design it for a few hours, but then I want to get to sleep. I really hate screwing my sleep schedule up because I have to stay up the whole next day to fix it." I said, she nodded in response and we got to work.

* * *

I didn't know what time it was, but after letting out rather loud yawn I couldn't help but ask, "Hey Halsey do you know what time it is?"

She glanced over to a different part of her screen and said, "It is seven-forty-eight A.M. Spencer."

Groaning I slowly stretched and yawning I said, "Damn. Look I need to go take care of my business, so I will back after I wake my self up."

"Oh, and how do you plan on doing that?" She asked.

Looking at her I say, "Well first I plan on jumping into a very cold body of water, then going to get some hard earned take out, and then another dip in the water but with the intention of washing myself that go around." With that I continued on out of the lab.

After several hours of doing just what I said I would, I returned to find Halsey still working on the suit designs. "Didn't change too much while I was gone?" I asked with a grin on my face while walking into the lab.

She gave me a look that I wouldn't classify as a glare, more like a step or two just below. "_Right not the Halsey your use to Spencer, so treat her with a bit more respect because she seems to be use to getting it._" Of course that lead to thoughts about bringing her down to earth, but she was the one that was designing my suit, and using it or not using it I want it designed well.

"Right well I do have a question for you." She waved her hand in my direction, I assumed this was her giving her approval. "Well why do I have to help you design it. I get the whole part with me knowing my body better than you, but as for the actual designing… well I'm sure you came up with all of the things I suggested within the first few minutes of us meeting. So why have me help at all?"

She had started looking at me about half way through my little speech, and she was giving me her, now ever present, blank look. "Honestly you are correct, I don't need you here to design your suit, but you have had some interesting insights as to the what exactly should go into the armor. And while they were… less than adequate, I have taken a few and… refined them."

"For instance the 'mini missiles' as you called them. When you purposed them I initially thought to throw the idea away, but the more I thought about it I saw how it could be used very effectively in the right situation, fighting scarabs for instance, and then you mentioned about the possibility of carrying extra supplies for the Spartans."

"While your ideas are… simple, they reminded me how much space I have to work with when I am designing your suit. It has lead to some… interesting conclusions." With that she turned back to her work and I turned back to the big screen and continued watching her work her magic.

A few minutes later I turned back to her and tried to get her attention, "Halsey." I called out to her and after a few moments she turned to me. "What if you could get your hands on some Forerunner tech? I know you wouldn't be able to get it up and running for sometime but it isn't as if I will be using the suit for sometime anyway because of trust issues and me not really being trained."

Watching her I could tell that she was considering it at least, and after what felt like a few minutes she asked, "Do you have any idea as to what is actually there and how sure of its location are you?"

"I know for a fact as to where it is, but as for what technology is actually is in the… Shield World its self, I don't know. I do know that it lead to a ship that is about six kilometers in length and was capable of beating anything the Covenant had to throw at it, at least I think that was the basic explanation."

"If we got to this Shield World as you call it, what do you think our chances are on winning this war?" Halsey asked.

Without hesitation I said, "You guys could easily be on the offensive in ten to twelve years, most likely less, and reclaim most if not all of the worlds taken or glassed by the Covenant. I do have some reservations on who exactly you should take out, but that is for later."

She looked at me with a calculating look that sent chills down my spine, and not the good kind. "Spencer I think you have been working on this long enough, why don't you take a break and continue later." Sighing I got up and left at the obvious dismissal.

At the door I stopped and turning around asked, "When are you going to contact Lord Hood about me wanting to talk to him. I know you consider it an inconvenience not just coming out and just saying it, but… I know how knowledge can be used, intentionally or not, for good or bad. When you know if he wants to talk to me or not please tell me." With that I left.

* * *

"_It has been a week and still nothing from Hood… and Halsey keeps telling me same thing every time, 'I've informed Lord Hood of your request, what happens from there is none of your concern'. I guess this is what it feels like not knowing something when you are use to knowing more than your fair share._" I grimaced at that thought, but then got back to locating my prey.

I had taken to using my senses more when hunting, and currently I am hunting a group of Moa. "_Definitely need to working on my hunting though, this little buggers might not be as fast as me, but I will be damned if they aren't agile little fuckers when they feel the need to be so._" I have improved my hunting by leaps and bounds, but it seemed that the finer points of hunting in a Thanator body still eludes me.

Slowly I moved to the crest of a hill, keeping my body close to the ground I peaked my head over the crest, and saw just what I had been smelling, a group of Moa about two dozen strong. I slowly pulled back after glancing around to see if there was a better approach.

Approaching from the left would be best because to my right is a hill that comes close to being steep and it is covered in small pebbles would make it so most of the heard would just tumble down it, I only needed four or five of them. Just opposite of my current position is a something of a small cliff, well small to me at lest, about fifteen feet high.

If I go in on the left side I could drive a good chunk of them straight in to the pebble covered hill, but there was a rather large issue with that. Going that way would put me up wind to them, so they would be able to smell me, and these agile little feathered bastards are coming to recognize my scent. So it's a no go unfortunately.

However it wasn't all bad, if I charge them now they will scatter and I was more than likely to get a few to go for the pebbled covered hill if I charge a little to the left.

So plan in mind I get ready to charge over the hill, when all of a sudden I hear the Moa running towards me. Stunned I don't get an opportunity to grab one as they flee past me. Of course the sight of me must have been quite the shock to them because they are doing all they can to give me a wide a berth as possible.  
I held my ground for the moment, I could catch up to the Moa, wondering what spooked them. I didn't have to wait long as I saw one of the ugliest creatures I have ever seen in nature, a Guta.  
I realized right away something was wrong this Guta was small comparied to adult one I remeber from the game, "_Must be a young one… crap where are the parents! Okay time to leave._" While I could take down a Guta I had no wish to do so unless I had to, so I slowly moved back down the hill. Once at the bottom I turned around and started following the trail the Moa left.

"_Well that is one disaster averted, now to get me some Moa._" I thought as I started to pick up speed.

I came to a stop after running for a good minute just to make sure I was going the right way, "_Good the dirt is still freshly churned by the Moa's passing through here._" I thought to myself as I looked at the ground.

Looking back up I took a deep breath as the wind shifted, and noticed that there was a smoky and acrid smell on the wind. "_Almost like burnt rubber, but… different_."

Slightly worried I continued ahead, but I tempered my worry and curiosity with wariness. They never said it out right but I know that the good people giving me room and board don't want me to be seen. So I needed to be careful not to be seen, not without good reason at least. "_Good thing they never gave me a list of reasons not to be seen and otherwise…probably would have filled up my room with paper._" It took me a few minutes to get to the source of the smell moving as slow as I was.

Once there I saw a four lane road with what looked like some kind of SUV that had crashed into a tree and some run over Moa that must have been hit when the driver tried to avoid them. The vehicle was smoking slightly which had me worried, but it wasn't lot.

I grimaced as I looked at the car though, it had run into a tree that grew at an awkward angle, so there were branches that were just low enough that crashing into them would be like running into a spear.

"_Well… the drivers and the person in shotgun are most likely dead… I can only hope it was quick._" I thought as I slowly moved down the hill.

As I approached the vehicle I heard a young girl sobbing as an older woman's voice did her best to soot her, however I could tell just from listening to her voice that something was really wrong with her. "Hush my golden angel… you are going… to b-be fine."

"B-b-bu-" The young girl tried to say.

The older woman who I assumed was her mother stopped her and said, "I-it is li-like I told y-you my golden angel, a-all thin-" She started coughing, but quickly brought it under control. "All t-things eventually p-pass on my golden angel, I-its just my time…" She finished, I could hear her struggle for more breath as her daughter cried.

"I… I don-don't want you t-t-to go!" The young girl sounded almost defiant for a moment, as if she was trying to halt the passing of her mother through pure force of will.

"Don't w-wor-ry, me and y-your p-papa w-will alw-ways b-be watching o-over you our golden angel…" She trailed off.

As I listened to the cries of that young girl I couldn't help but curse my hearing, it had be getting stronger just like all my senses, and as I listened to those cries of a young girl begging her mother and father to come back, to do something, anything… I could only hear the last heart beats of life leaving that young girls mother.

I bowed my head in silence for several minutes for that mother and father, but I couldn't let her stay here for too long.

* * *

I waited for about ten minutes, all I could hear now was the quiet sobbing and occasional cry for her parents. She needed to have something to remember. I knew it wasn't really healthy for her to be in there like that with her parents dead, but at the same time I couldn't bring myself to tear her away without her having some time with them.

"Young one." I called out, I didn't know what else to call her.

The sobbing stoppedafter a few moments and all was quiet for when I heard a tiny broken voice call out, "W-w-who's t-there?"

I take a quite breath, and say, "I… I am…" I didn't know what to say for several moments. "I'm just here to help little one."

After a few moments of more silence she called out again, but this time there was a desperate hope in it, "Ca-can you h-help my m-mom a-and dad?… Please!" She cried out in the end. "There j-just sleeping right now! Please… help them…" She finished with a quiet plea.

I had to take a few moments to bring my emotions under control after hearing her little voice like that, but it was done soon enough. "Little one… there is no… easy way to put this…but your parents… their… their watching over you now." I said, using some of her mothers last words, hoping that they would bring some kind of comfort to this young child who had just lost what made up the most important parts of her world.

"NO! I… I don't believe you!" I heard something shift and then what could only be a body start shaking. "MOMMY! WAKE UP!" I heard her PLEASE WAKE UP!" I her sift again, and she said in a quiet, tender, pleading voice, "Please… Mommy… Daddy…" After that she started crying.

I closed my eyes and took a few minutes to let go of all my emotions in preparation for what I need to do next.

"Little one." I started with as much kindness as I could muster. "You need to come out of there-" I was interrupted with a cry of no and after a moment I continued. "Look little one…you don't want this… situation to be how you remember your parents." I waited for a moment before continuing. "You want to remember them when they were happy… to remember that they are watching over you, and that they will always love you."

"I-I…" Her little voice was torn and broken with the choice I presented to her and I know that she will still want to stay.

"Don't worry, they are with you in spirit young one, and you can always know this when you think back to a memory of happiness with them." After a few moments of silence something occurred to me. "If your worried that they might be replaced in your heart young one… never fear that. Because they are and always will be your mother and father, the ones who raised you, taught you, and most of all they were the ones that loved you."

"Nothing will change that because you will always remember them and they will never forget you."

Silence reigned for several minutes and I was getting ready to say something when she started to move. I heard her voice just barely, "Go-good bye Mama-" I heard her move again. "Good b-bye Papa… I-I'm coming o-out"

"Wait!" I called out.

"Wh-what?" She said confused and scared.

"It isn't you, but me. When you come out and see me you will be scared and terrified with what I look like, but remember that I will never hurt you."

After a minute she called out, "Y-you p-prom-mise?"

I answered right away, "I promise on everything that I am and ever will be that I will never harm you little one." I laid down and kept myself as close to the ground as possible, this way I looked less intimidating.

After a few moments I heard her start to move and the back door slowly opened up and I got my first glimpse of her. She had golden blond hair and what looked like blue eyes, but that was all I got to see before she screamed and shut the door.

"W-w-what are you!?" She yelled in a terrified voice.

"My name is Spencer and I am what you would call a Thanator, before I continue I want you to look at me so you will know that I am the one talking. Take as much time as you need to open the door little one, I will be waiting here" I said calmly, the last thing this little one needs is for me to scare her anymore than she already is.

After several minutes I the door opens but only enough for me to see a glimps of what looked like a beautiful blue eye looking out of that crack and it was filled with pain, fear, and held the look of a lost child.

"There we go, now I am going to very slowly get up and turn to the side. You will see a… metal thing on my back. It is a gift from your people to me, it is what allows me to talk to you. Are you okay with me getting up and showing you?" I asked gently.

I saw her eye move around, trying to get a better look at me, but she didn't want to open the door any more than it already was. I could see her thinking about it and after a few minutes she nodded her head.

I wanted to smile but I knew that would only scare the poor child more, so I slowly got up and turned to my left for her to see the device. "I won't harm you little one, I just want to help you."

I saw her face disappear for a moment, as if she was quickly looking at something and then her little face reappeared as she slowly opened the door. As more of her body became visible I noticed that she was covered in blood, I was worried for a moment, but realized a moment later that she didn't have any cuts on her that I could see, a few bruises but not cuts. "_Her parents blood then…_" I almost grimaced at the thought but stopped before I could scare her some more.  
She was standing on the ground, half hidden as she looks out from behind the door at me. She had golden hair that was matted down in some paces with blood, beautiful crystal blue eyes that had some light purple tinges to it, and she had what some would call 'tall and willowy' look.

"Don't worry child, I won't hurt you, remember the promise I made to you?" I asked her softly.

She nods her head after a few seconds, and hesitantly starts to come out from behind the door a little bit at a time, obviously worried that I would attack her at any moment.

Once again I had to stop myself from smiling so I wouldn't scare her. "Don't worry I wont hurt you, just focus on the metal thing on my back, listen to my voice, and you will know that I mean you no harm."

She paused for a moment and with her frame shaking slightly she started to walk towards me.

After a few minutes of encouraging her I felt her grab onto the metal strap holding the T.D. onto my back. "There we go, you have nothing to fear little one. I will help you, but for me to do that you need to climb onto my back so I can take you to someone to get looked at. We need to make sure you aren't hurt after all."

I heard her take a deep gulp and I saw her nod her head, as she grabbed on to the harness and slowly started to climb it. "_Ah, the resilience of a child's mind has never ceased to amaze me._"

"Why don't you try it when I'm in a different position" I told her.

She looked a little confused but nodded as she took a few steps back. I slowly leaned to my right to lay down.

I saw a look of wonder and curiosity on her face, that only a child could have, as I slowly moved. I could still see the pain in her eyes, but I could tell that right now she isn't thinking about that.

Once I was done moving my legs were I said, "There we go, now what you need to do is grab onto the base of those things coming out the back of my head, and hook your… left foot around the… thing that is near your head. You can pull it down just be careful, as for your other leg just make sure not to step the other thing coming out of my head at your feet. That way when I slowly get up you will be on my back, but make sure to hold on tight. Is that okay with you?" It was a fairly simple plan and I was very sure it would work, as long as both the child and myself just takes it slow and steady.

After a few minutes I felt her grab onto my left queue and start to slowly pull it down so she can hook her leg over it. Surprisingly I found that she wasn't really hurting me as she pulled on the queue, at least she wasn't until she started to pulling on them and there wasn't any slack.

Wincing I slowly tilted my head back so she could get the queue to the height she needed. I felt her lift her leg up after a few more moments of this and then slip her leg over it so she was hooked onto my queue at her knee.

She then grabbed onto my queue. "Are you ready?" I asked.

I didn't hear anything for a few moments, but then I heard her take a deep breath and say, "Yes I'm ready." With that I slowly started moving.

I started with my head, twisting it left, to see if she could hold on while hanging there. I heard here breath start to get faster , as if she was scared, so I stopped. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Y-yes… I just… I d-don't… " I felt her shift to look at the car behind her.

"_Ahhhh._" I thought in realization.

"You don't need to be afraid of leaving your parents behind little one… all you have to do is remember what your mother said. She told you that they will always will be watching over you…" She was just hanging there for a few moments when she turned back to me and started sobbing.

A couple days ago it occurred to me that I am a cat, and as a cat I should be able to purr. I took me a couple of hours to figure out, but once I got it down I could have it really deep, to where it sounded like some kind of massive demented engine, or comparatively quiet, it sounded like a quiet motorcycle engine in idle.

I let out the quiets purr I could manage, and after a few moments as tenderly as I could I said, "Your not leaving them and they aren't leaving you. They my be gone physically, but they will always be with you in your heart little one." After that I kept quiet and kept purring for a minute or so.

When she stopped sobbing she said, "You can purr."

It sounded like a statement to me but I said, "Yes."

"Are you ready now?" I asked after a few more moments of this. A quite yes was all I got in response.

Slowly I continued shifting my body, and after a few minutes of uncomfortable positions with agonizingly slow changes between them II was standing upright.

"Okay little one I am going to stop purring now, and I need you to get in a position that will make it so you can hold on as tight as you can." I said.

After a minute of her moving I said told her that the best place for her to be would be at the crook of my neck right under my sensory quills. That way she could have something to help keep her warm and keep the wind off of her. Granted it wasn't really that cold, but it wasn't really warm either.

It took her several minutes but she got into position eventually. "Okay now I need you to hold on as tight as you can, can you do that?"

"Yes." It came out a little muffled but I felt her grip get tighter.

"Okay here we go." With that is slowly started moving forward.

* * *

I started out towards the base. It was only twenty minutes away at a full sprint, but I could only go about one third that because I didn't want to hurt my passenger, after all this child isn't exactly a Spartan.

I was just starting to make it through trees so I slowed down even more to make sure she didn't hit something while I was passing through.

"Spencer can you hear me!" yelled the young girl.

I had come to a sudden stop in between some trees. " Sorry about that." I said, apologizing for the sudden stop as she readjusted her self. "I didn't expect you to say anything on the trip back to the base, so what do you need?" I asked genuinely curious.

"Well… I was… just wondering about something… that's all." She finished, sounding like she was embarrassed.

I chuckled at that, but stopped when I felt her body lock up. "Oh little one. I'm sorry, that was me just laughing a little bit. You see I have a much different body than you do, so when I laugh or chuckle it sounds like I am growling. Sorry about that I didn't mean to scare you."

"S-s-so yo-your n-not angry with my q-question?" She asked sounding hopeful.

I let out another small laugh before cutting it off. "Dear me no I'm not angry at you for asking me a question. You can ask me anything and I wont get angry at you little one. Now why don't you tell me your name and then we can move onto your question. Okay?" I was some what relived that she seemed to be taking this fairly well all considering.

"My name Dorika, my Mom told me it means 'Gift of God' in English..." She trailed off at the end, obviously lost in some memory of a better time.

I started moving again but now I was going half as fast as I was before. "Well Dorika why don't you tell me that question you had for me, and I will answer it the best I can. Okay?"

"Okay…" She was quite for about a minute when she said, "Well… I was w-wondering… where you came f-from?"

I chuckled again, she tensed up for a moment but then she relaxed, and this time I didn't stop my self she was just being way too cute. "Like I said no worries about questions Dorika."

"Now you asked me where I came from… well that is a little bit complicated. You see about a month or so ago I was actually a very different person, when it comes to my body anyway. Then one day I woke up in the jungles of Africa on Earth."

"But how could have that happened!" She exclaimed.

I chucked a little bit more at her tone. "I don't know Dorika, I was going to take a quick nap on my bed at my families house… and then all of a sudden I woke up in the jungles of Africa on Earth like this."

All was quiet for a few minutes and I could only imagine how her little face must be scrunched up, have a slightly confused look to it, or maybe a blank look of confusion as she goes over what I told her.

"But… what were you before you woke up?" She asked with a little bit of wonder in her voice, almost like she found a treasure and says 'wow I wonder where it came from'.

"Well… hmmm… you see before I woke up like this I was human." This was followed by another loud exclamation.

"What! But how could have you been human! You don't look anything like one…" She trailed off at the end.

"Yes that is true, but if you ask the people I'm taking you to so you can get checked up, they will tell you one of two things. One you don't need to know, or two that anything like me has never been discovered on Earth before. My body has many big differences, the biggest one is those things your holding on to."

"What these?" She asked while squeezing the queue.

"Yes, you see those are called queue." I said, only for her to fire off another question right away.

"Queue? What's that mean?" She asked in a confused tone.

"Well I don't know the exact definition but I have an example, have you ever been to a them park?" I asked.

"Yes, it was a lot of fun, but never liked the lines. I kept asking my mommy why we couldn't just go to the front." She said right away.

I smiled at the imagery that brought to my mind as I said,. "Yes well you see those lines are called queue."

"But you said these are called queue?" She said sounding really confused now.

I laughed some with a big smile on my face. "Yes that is true, but a lot of words can mean different things and still sound the same or even be spelled the same. Like plain for instance, it can mean a plane that flies through the sky or it can mean a very, very big flat… piece of ground."

"Okay…" She sound unsure of her self as she said that.

"Well we got a little off topic so why don't we get back to it." I said.

"What's a topic?" She asked.

I thought about it for a moment and then said, "A topic is a subject, do you know what that is?"

"Yup I do!" She said sounding very excited, I could feel her nodding her head rapidly but then she stopped.

I came to a stop wondering if she hurt herself by accident or if she was more hurt from the crash than I had first thought. "You okay Dorika?"

"Why would we go back to someone you rule over? That doesn't make any sense, and you never told me you are a king!" She said, going from sounding like she was pondering one of life's great mysteries to accusing rather quickly.

"What… the…" I thought, and then I realized what she was talking about and I laughed for a good ten seconds.

"Ummmm… Spencer… Speeeennncer?" Dorika called out.

Still chuckling I said, "Not exactly what I meant when I said subject little one. You see a subject can mean something your talking about. Like if we were talking about princesses or princes, both of those would be two different subject. Closely related granted, but still different."

"Ohhhhh okay, now I get it!" She said happily.

"Good now I was telling you how I am very different from any other animal found on Earth." I said continuing as I was before on my way to the base. "I told you about the queue and another thing that makes me different is how I can use the queue."

I was quiet for what must have been a few moments too log as Dorika made herself know. "So what do you use them for?" She asked.

"Sorry, just gathering my thoughts… well you saw how they went into the machine, right?" I asked her.

"Yup, I thought it was a little weird." She said off-handedly.

"Well it goes into the machine because that is how I use it to talk, and I will explain how that works later. Okay Dorika?" I said.

"Okaaay…" She said with no small amount of disappointment in her voice.

"Good, now the last thing that makes me different from the animals on Earth is my bones. They are made with different stuff than the animals or humans from Earth." I told her.

"How are they dif… diffeane…" She tried to say.

"It is pronounced dif- like when you are trying to say difficult; except you only say the beginning part, fer- like when you are trying to say fern; except without the n at the end, ent- and as for ent… well its like saying ant except instead of an a at the beginning you have an e. Does that make any sense Dorika?" I asked at the end of my explanation.

"I think so… diff… fer… a…ent. D-I-f-f-e-r-e-n-t." I smiled as she succeeded at getting the word right.

"Good job Dorika, that's how you say different!" I said encouragingly, hoping to keep her mind off of her parents deaths for as long as possible. "Now why don't you ask me that question you were about to ask?"

I heard her hum as she took a moment to think and then, "I got it, okay, why are your bones diff-er-ent Spencer?"

I smiled and said, "Well you see my bones are made with lighter and tougher stuff called carbon fiber, so they are a lot stronger than almost any kind of bone you would find on an animal from Earth."

"Ooohhhh… but what is car-b-ooo-ne… fib-er." Dorika finished with a questioning tone.

Smiling I say to Dorika, "Why don't we save that for later okay?"

I heard her sigh and then she said in a sad tone, "Okay…"

Neither of us spoke for a few minutes so I started to pick up the pace when Dorika said, "Spencer… why are you here?"

I didn't answer for little while, but I felt that she should know. "To be honest… I don't know Dorika. Like I said I woke up in the forests of Africa on Earth, and I know that I'm not really welcome but it was worth coming here just to help you little one."

"Thank you Spencer." She said after a few moments and I felt her grip get tighter for a few seconds and then go back to normal. "When you said that your not welcome… what did you mean? You seem nice to me and… you helped me…"

I slowly came to a stop and said, "Dorika, not everyone wants me here because they don't trust me… they fear what they don't know and that fear makes them… push me away. It isn't that I'm not nice or kind or even helpful. What it comes down to is that your people is at war with a group of… non humans."

"So when I come along your people don't trust me, and in away I don't blame them when I look at it from there point of view. I don't hate them for it but I am very… frustrated, impatient, and… very disheartened with them. They have there reasons so I am just going to let them figure it out." I tried putting it in words that she could at least understand, but I get the feeling that I was losing her.

"Anyway it doesn't really matter what they think right now. I know that I will be proven right soon enough and when that happens… well… I don't know… an apology would be a good start though."

"Well for now I think that is enough, right now I need to get you to see an… well I would say friend but… this person is… very… well I don't know how to put it so I will say picky for now. Still I need to bring you over so you can get looked at and make sure your in tip top shape, so lets save the questions for when your cleaned up. Okay?" I needed to get Dorika some medical attention and these conversation weren't helping, entertaining sure but not helping.

"Okay, but you promise to talk to me afterwards?" She asked with a hopful tone, but I could hear the pleading in it.

"I promise little one, right after your done getting looked over we will talk." I told her in a reassuring tone.

I heard her sigh and tighten her grip on my queue but she didn't say anything else. So with that I started through the forest.

* * *

I found myself approaching the base entrance, but stopped before getting within hearing range of the guards to say something to the child. "Okay little one I need you to stay quiet, and try not to be scared. Some of these people can be a little mean, but they mean well. So hold on tight and don't let go unless I tell you to. Okay?"

"Okay Spencer." Once again I felt her grip get tighter.

"If they so much as touch a hair on her head…" Well lets put it this way, I wouldn't care if it was the Master Chief, John-117 himself. I would rend them limb from limb if I had to.  
Once that was done I moved forward to talk to the guards. "Hey guys, do you know where Halsey is I need to talk to her." I asked.

The guard to my left looked at me for a few moments before motioning me to follow her while saying, "Follow me Spencer, the Doctor is expecting you and your guest."

A slight frown found its way onto my face after the female guard said that. "_Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they know, after all there is no way that the U.N.S.C. would let something like me go around unsupervised in some way. I guess that they thought it would be easier to just give me a homing device and watch me with a satellite from orbit… speaking of tracking devices…Hmmmmmm._" I trailed off in thought as I remembered the surgery I went through to get the shrapnel out of me.

"_I really doubt that they would have missed out on that opportunity to put one or two trackers on me and take as many sample from my body as they pleased._" A shiver went down my spin at that thought and I felt more violated than usual considering my whole' out of body experience' I got going here.

As we move through the base I wondered what they would do to the child I brought back with me. "Well I guess I will find out soon enough." With that thought in mind I banish all other thoughts and focus on the up coming encounter.

About half way there I encountered the unmistakable forms of Jorge and the Master Chief. "Well take them from here, Corporal." Jorge said, the Corporal gave a quick and crisp salute and then turned around and headed back to her post.

The Spartans then turned around and started moving through the base.

"_Well not exactly where I need to be to get treatment for a human child._" I thought as we entered the lab, but I noticed some big differences right away. One the equipment was for the most part cleared out and two there was a group of people waiting for me.

"Ah Spencer. It took you long enough to get back, you've kept your guests waiting." Halsey said as she motioned to the group of people behind her.

I looked over and I only recognized Hood, but two of them seemed to resemble the descriptions of my two most hated people in the U.N.S.C. section of humanity.

"_Ackerson and Parangosky… If I had half a mind to kill these two right now._" That brought a thought to mind as to what exactly they would do to Dorika, and if they tried to take her away for unsupervised treatment…

"Spencer I think it is time that you introduce yourself and you little friend." Halsey said.

I tore my death glare from those two and then started to take deep breathes through my nose an effort to see if this was actually Lord Hood… well smell him out actually.

"Well than it really is you Lord Hood, I had honestly expected you to send some one in your place… much less your… company." I said looking at Parangosky and Ackerson while voicing my thoughts on company.

"So the device does work as well as you clamed Halsey." Lord Hood said after I was finished, he quickly glanced over towards Ackerson and then continued. "As for my company, when your in the business of survival you do what you have to survive."

"Hmmm, very true Lord Hood, but before we continue I would like to take care of one order of business first." I said to him and he nodded.

Looking back to Halsey I asked, "Is this lab capable of caring of humans, or at least checking for injuries." She looked at me and nodded. "Good than I need you to check this little one that I have with me."

I lay down and say, "Dorika I need you to go with this nice lady, her name is Halsey, she will help you get cleaned up and make sure you aren't hurt, okay?" At this I heard Halsey approach my right side.

"But I don't wanna go." She said, pleading with me.

I thought for a moment and then said, "At least come down so I can see you little one."

I felt her grip tighten for a moment when she slowly started to let go, so she could slid down into Halsey's arms, but once she was down she quickly got free of Halsey's grip and ran to my head and hugged me.

"I'm. Not. Going." She said defiantly, but I could hear her hurt, her pain, and her desire to not lose the one anchor she had just gain in her storm of emotions and memories.

I started to purr, and then slowly maneuvered her so she was sitting down on my right front foreleg. She settled down quick enough, she is sitting right where my elbow would be on my human body, and hugged her knees up to her chest and leaned against my chest for support and then closed her eyes.

I saw Halsey move to take her. "No, let her be." I said shaking my head. "Let her be, she has lost enough for one day, but you do need to get cleaned up after this Dorika."

"Okay…" She said.

"No you said okay when I asked you to listen to me. Now I want you to promise me that you will get cleaned up and get a check up as well." I said while turning my head to look her in the eye with an arched eyebrow.

She meet my gaze for a few moments, but she relented and said, "I promise."

"To do what?" I asked her after a few moments of silence. She grumbled but said nothing. "Well?" I asked and stopped purring.

She grumbled for a few more moments but looked into my eye and in a quite voice said, "I promise to get cleaned up and go to the doctor." I raised my eyebrow even higher and after a few moments she relented. "After you are done with those old people I will do it."

"Good, now little one you have had… quite the day, so I want you to lean back against me, cover yourself with one or two of those flaps coming out of my head, and then close your eyes to get some rest." I said as I continued purring as quietly as I could.

After a few minutes of this I heard her breathing slow down and then I felt her relax as she went to sleep. With that I slowly stopped my purring and then I looked at Halsey. "You have something to keep her asleep." I figured they would most likely have something to help quiet Dorika down since they knew she was coming.  
She nods her head and starts walking over to Dorika, while pulling a small sealed plastic package. Once she was standing next to her she opened the package to reveal what smelled like alcohol, and then started to gently wipe down a small area on her left leg.

After she was done she then put the disposable pad into the wrapping it came with and slipped it into her pocket. When her hand came back out it had a small syringe and she quickly got ready to inject Dorika.

"I give you one warning Halsey." She stopped just as she was bringing the syringe to bear. "I know many things about the U.N.S.C. and I know that one child is… worth very little in there eyes… she had better wake up…" I left it at that, but while our eyes meet I could see some pain that surged through her eyes, but then it was gone.

She didn't say anything as she carefully plunged the needle into Dorika and slowly injected whatever is in the needle. "She will be asleep for six to eight hours Spencer."

After a few minutes I looked over to the group of people watching me. One or two of them had curiosity painted on there features and most others were neutral and person that looked like Ackerson was silently glaring at me, but it was Hood's and Parangosky's faces that I was looking at. Hood from what I could tell was almost… content, it looked like he was prove right about something.

However it was Parangosky's face that sent a cold chill down my spine. She was standing there with a cat-ate-the-canary look but toned down, and I could see the cold calculating look in her eyes as she glanced back and forth between me and Dorika.

Then she locked her eyes with mine and I knew without a doubt that she was more than willing to use Dorika against me if it came down to some arm twisting.

"Lord Hood, I'm glad you came, I have quite the tail to tell you." I called out to the group.

I watched Hood as he walked towards me and then stood right where Halsey had been and looked at Dorika and said, "A beautiful young child don't you think so Spencer?" I nodded in agreement. "Where did you find her?"

I thought for a moment about his question and then said, "I found her while I was hunting a group of Moa. They had been scared off by a Guta and while they were running they came across a road. Here the group got in the way of a vehicle and it crashed into a tree."

"He died very quickly judging from the tree branch that was going through his chest, as for her mother… well she died while reassuring her daughter, she had a tree branch going through her just below her chest cavity and another going through her right arm, she bleed to death."

"I see… well nothing that can be done about it now, but she isn't why we have gathered here Spencer. You have some information for me and my associates." Hood said looking me in the eye.

I smile and say, "Well right to it then… I have thought about what I am doing here, and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't brought here to watch the story I know play out before my eyes."

"So… Hood how quickly do you think things will change if I told you how to get to a Forerunner installation know to know to them as Installation 4, and is in fact a Halo…"


	8. Chapter 8 What It Has Come To

Since the Third or Fourth chapter I have been thinking about what I have learned from writing this story, and I knew from the beginning that I wouldn't meet my own expectations, after all it is my first story.

Frankly I only wrote this for two things. To figure out how a Thantors body would work and to gain some experience as a writer. This way I would do a better job when I write my part of the story I am working on with my brothers.

This doesn't mean that I am abandoning this story, rather I want to do a rewrite of it. I had a one point in the planning process decided that I would eventually do a rewrite of this story at one point or another (might, and I stress the MIGHT, continue this but I would like to hear some opinions on that first). Mostly because I know that this story can be much better and I have another, better, plot that my brothers decided to kick to the curb when I proposed it for the story we are working on (it explains why we are in the situation we are in).

Now that it has gotten to this point I look back and see where I could improve a great deal, but I would honestly like to hear what you, the readers, think about how I have done so far. Be honest, brutally so actually, I want to know where I went wrong and what I can improve on.

Now that doesn't mean I want to read flames, they can be useful as well, but only to a point. So if you are going to flame, please at least put one or two points that I can improve on when you are finished.

As for what I am going to do when I rewrite the story, you should know that because of the idea I am going to use things are going to change a lot, very quickly as well, when I do the rewrite. It is unfortunate, but there is no way for me to get around it.

Now this isn't just an announcement about how I am going to abandon the story, I have included a section of the chapter I was working on. It isn't complete or even really polished, so some part of it are, in my opinion, some what cringe worthy.

It honestly leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I think about how this part of the story went. I could have done much better, in fact I would have completely redone the section where I talk with Parangosky, and I plan to do better with the rewrite.

The first chapter is all but written out in my head, so it will probably come out soon enough (If I do the rewrite, if not I will re-post this chapter redone in some parts, polished, and completed), but I wont start writing it until I get a chance to read the responses to what I have written. So I hope to hear from you readers

Thank you for reading, good day to you fine readers.

"Maweypeyyu" = Talking  
"_Mìftxele_" = Thinking (I didn't go through and turn the thinking to italics, for some reason it makes it all normal when I put it into the editor Fanfic dot net provides)  
**nìawnomum **= Emphasis on talking, thinking, or otherwise  
:Time is power: = Written dialog

* * *

Hood was quiet for sometime as he studied me. I am a little nervous, but I am more than a little curious about Hoods thoughts on the matter. After all I may have given Halsey a timetable for the U.N.S.C. pushing back the Covenant, but I still would like to know how my knowledge compares to the real thing.

"Why would that matter Spencer?" He seemed to be curious but I could tell that he is exactly up to these games, and considering his company I don't really blame him.

"I have, over this last week thought much about what I should reveal, and if it would just be better to give you all of what I know. I asked that question to see about how much I really know, but I know you don't really care to… take care of me. The only reason you haven't gotten rid of me is because I never harmed a human and I might have some knowledge you want."

"So coming here was a waste of time?" Hood asked neutrally.

"No it wasn't Hood, you will get what you came for and far more. Before I tell you how to get there though you need to listen too and heed my warning. On Halo there are two dangers, one is an A.I. and the other is the Flood."

"Now the A.I. is for the most part… well its been around for a little more that one-hundred-thousand years, so it is slightly rampant. It is called 343 Guilty Spark and has developed more than a slight attachment to the Halo ring that is watching over."

"You wont have worry much about him though as long as you don't release the Flood and mean no harm to the Halo ring. Other than that he should be extremely helpful to you guys. Since you are Reclaimers he will help you, that is what he programmed to do after all, "

Now as for the Flood. Well if you don't let them out of their containment than you wont have to really worry about them. Still it would be best if you check in with Guilty Spark to learn the locations of the Flood, and then leave them alone."

"You don't want us to destroy this Flood?" Asked one of the people with Hood.

I look over to him and say, "343 Guilty Spark has two rules he must follow. One is to help Reclaimers and study the Flood. Now over time he has gone slightly or completely rampant so if you go to 'destroy' the Flood he could take that rather badly and kill all of you. Trust me in the end he would win, unless your willing to nuke the place, but then he could just use the teleportation grid on Halo to just place it on one of your ships, but I don't think you would do that because of the tech on the Halo that you want."

I looked back over to Hood after that and continued with a question, "Now where was I?"

"Leaving the Flood alone" Hood mentioned.

"Right, thank you. Now if you just follow those rules than you should be just fine, and get all of the technological marvels that your race had before and more." I finished with a nod.

I thought for a moment and than realized that I hadn't told them how to find the Halo in question. "Right I forgot to tell you how to get their." I heard a few people mutter under their breath at that, and ignoring it I continued. "Now to get there you will need to go to a planet called… I'm pretty sure it is Sigma Octanus IV."

"Sigma Octanus IV, are you sure about that Spencer?" Hood doubtfully asked.  
"Yup, I know this because in about twelve years there was going to be a battle with the Covenant on and around that planet. Now the Covenant were after one very specific item, that being a map that leads to Halo."

"Buried some where on the planet I assume?" Asked the same person from before. Once again looking at him I thought ha looked familiar but I couldn't place his face right off.

"Nope, it is actually in one of the museums on the planet." I am slightly disappointed that that little bit of information only got a few raised eyebrows. "It is a rather large piece of rock, and all you need to do is scan it to find the coordinates. The reason you never figured it out is because you never thought to look at them like a set of slipspace coordinates."

"And then you will be able to turn this war around with…" I stopped an thought about something.

"Spencer?" Hood asked. "Something wrong with what you told us?"

"No nothing like that, I just thought of something that is all. It doesn't have anything to do with what is going on though, so you don't need to worry. I talk to you or Halsey about it later though." I said in an effort to placate Hood.

Hood nodded his head after a moment of thought and then asked, "Is that all we need to know to get to Halo and access the technology their?"

"Yes, it is." I said laying my head down.

Hood hummed for a moment and said, "Well we will talk later Spencer, right now we have some work to do." And with that Hood and company started to leave the room, and I noticed that the Spartans and Halsey is going with them as well. With that I laid my head down to take a cat nap.

"Lord Hood." I called out to him, still keeping my head down, as I thought of something, and he stopped and turned around to face me. "Why do you believe me, you made it plainly obvious that you don't trust how I came across this information earlier."

"It took some time, but we found the structure that you mentioned under New Mombasa." Hood said and I hummed in response as they left.  
I heard the doors close and as I laid their in thought it was then I noticed that I could hear and smell someone still in the room. Opening my eyes I came face to face with what looked like an older woman standing a few feet away from me. She didn't say anything and I looked and listened for anyone else in the room. I didn't find anyone in my search and I found it odd that she would have been aloud to stay behind despite the lack of guards.

Looking at her again I recognized her as the one I think to be Parangosky, but I didn't want to make a bad first impression if it wasn't. "Errr, hello?"

She smiled and then walked closer to me, well within striking range of my jaws, and then moved over to Dorika and placed a hand on her forehead. "She is a beautiful young child isn't she?" The older woman said.

I felt a cold pit in my stomach start to develop. "And you are?" I asked politely.

"You don't know who I am, I was sure with your knowledge you would be able to divine my identity." She said with one of those voices that didn't sound patronizing, but came across as such.

I looked at her for a few more moments and said, "I admit to having my suspicions as to who you might be, but it isn't a good thing to blindly go out into the dark. Doing so only invites trouble."

As I said that she turned to me, a small smile developing the whole time, and once I was done she just looked into my eyes for sometime. It is rather uncomfortable I must admit, but I didn't brake eye contact with her once.

"You know there is an old saying amongst my people." She began slowly. "And it goes 'the eyes are the windows to the soul'. You can tell a lot about a person when looking into ones eyes, but you can only see so much."

She turned back to Dorika and continued. "If what you have told us is true than she shall be allowed to live. Her and her family had been marked for death today, but she survived the crash. Granted we had plans for an eventuality like that, a few wild animals getting to any survivor before the rescue crew could get there."  
I started to let out a low growl at this and asked, "And what did this little one do to warrant death?"

"It isn't what she did, but rather what her parents were doing. They own a company that supplies fifty-three percent of the titanium for our warships." I slowly stopped growling as I got a sense as to where this was going. "They weren't gouging the prices, but they were steadily supplying the Insurrectionists with the titanium that we needed."

"It was only because of the actions of this child's uncle that we found out, and at first we were going to break the company up but the situation presented an opportunity that suited us better. We would kill the family and ensure that her uncle became the legal owner of it afterwards."

"From their he would slowly start cutting the prices and over the next five years he would begin picking up smaller companies that couldn't keep up with them." She turned back to me and looking into her eyes I knew that I will be making a deal with the devil soon enough.

"Of course they wouldn't be able to start buying them out that quickly, but with some help on the side however… well soon enough he would have controlled over a much larger portion of the suppliers that sell and provide us the titanium for our ships." She stopped here and pulled out a pad from her pocket to look at it.  
After a few minutes of thought on my part and study of the pad on Parangosky's part she continued. "Once that was done we would then allow an increase of five credits for every ton of titanium that we bought and slowly chip at the last few remaining companies. "

"It was a good plan that was good for everyone all around, except for the enemies that my people face that is. However that is where you came in and messed everything up." She said with a look of distain.

"You changed everything when you came onto the playing field, and finding a realistic way to control you has been rather frustrating I admit. However it seems that this child has unknowingly found herself in a position to be of use." Her voice changed thoughtful as she looked at me.

I sighed as I knew that their it was, the ultimatum. Her life for my service. "How do I know that she will be safe?"

"The better question is how far would you go to protect this child?" She immediately countered.

Looking at Dorika I said, "I will do what I have to-" Turning to look at Parangosky I continued. "-whether or not I have to fight for her is up to you, now isn't it?"  
Her expression didn't change as time moved on so I decided to look at Dorika and say, "I have always been protective of children Parangosky… I … and now I know I will never have one. It is something I had looked forward too as I got older, and now…"

I hummed for a moment and then looked at Parangosky. "I am what I am now and nothing can be done to change me back. I don't expect you to understand my position, but I do expect you to not care one little bit. So could we get on with what I have to do to keep this child alive." I finished and turned to look at Dorika.

Nothing was said for sometime and I was just fine with that, but all good things come to an end. "There isn't much that you could do for us if what you have told us is true, but if it is… you would have helped my race win against an enemy that is doing its best to exterminate us, and is succeeding at doing so. Thus I find my self in quite the moral quandary when it comes to you."

I snorted at the ridiculousness of her statement. "We both know that you could careless as to what happens to me once you got what you want, and then Dorika is of no use either. So what do you want?" I know that I am walking on extremely thin ice here, but I really don't like how she is dancing around the issue, and that being what she wants from me.

"What I want is to know how far would you go and how far would you let yourself fall to save this child." I was going to say something but she kept on going. "Not what would you would do, rather what you would endure to save this child."

I thought about it and then it was starting to make a sick kind of sense as I quietly said, "The samples you had taken from my body…" I closed my eyes in frustration and pain as I thought about what may or may not have been found within the flesh that I now have.

I heard a dark chuckle coming from her and I knew that I was 'hers', so to speak, once they found Halo. Once I had lost my usefulness.

"And so begins the fall from grace…" I thought.

"What will you do to me?" I asked looking at the ground, I knew that I was beaten.

"You sound so sure that we will find what you have told us about." She said.

I look at her not angry, not sad, not vengeful, but accepting as I said, "You will find what you seek Parangosky, but…" I was tempted to say more about what I know, but looking over to Dorika I knew that taunting them was a death sentence for her. "I am sure I will never see it."

"If what you have told us is true I might consider leaving the child with you. After all she died in the crash didn't she, and I get to have something to make sure her Uncle keeps his word." I looked at her hearing this, and watched as she placed one of her hands onto my snout and start to scratch it. "So for the moment she will be with you, but how long she stays all depends on what we find." That said she took her hand off of me and moved to leave.

It was then a two panels on opposite sides of the room opened up and out walked two people in sets of what looked like SPI armor, but heavily modified. "Okay, but I thought that all of the Threes were dead at this time… unless those are Headhunters, but aren't they involved in missions deep in Covenant territory?" I didn't know much about them, but I did know that they are like Grey Team.

It bugged me, but I knew better than to mention anything to Parangosky so I kept quiet. Once the door closed I laid my head down on the ground and thought about what happened.  
"Well I'm in quiet the pickle… well realistically were they going to do anything else?" I asked myself, and I knew the answer.

"Still they will now be able to fight off the Covenant and have a better chance at what ever Forerunner remnants are left. Yes, but at the same time I hope the tech they get doesn't go to their heads. They haven't had a chance to learn their lessons when it comes to dealing with Forerunners either. So what will Guilty Spark do when they arrive on his door step… most likely help them like I said, but will they head my warnings?"

I take a deep breath and let my thoughts take a moment on the back burner as I opened my eyes to look around. I ended up looking at Dorika as I continued on with my thoughts. "What can I do to save you now little one… I don't know, but I will do my best to protect you." I continued watching her for a few more moments, but I couldn't stop the feeling of helplessness from engulfing me as time went on.

I must have fallen a sleep sometime afterwards because I awoke to Dorika standing next to my head tapping it. Looking into her eyes she smiled and said, "I was wondering how long it would take you to wake up."

I took a deep breath and said, "And how long did it take for me to wake up?"

She shrugged and with her head tilted cutely to the side she said. "I couldn't tell without a clock, but it was a while." She said sagely.  
"Okay I'm going to get up now, so could you back up a little bit." I asked her.

Her only response was to take a few steps back and watch as I got up and stretch. After I was done stretching I looked at Dorika and said, "Well why don't we go and find out what time it is." She nodded her head, and I saw her get a distance look on her face for a moment, but she shook her head and got a determined look on her face.

"Probably thinking about her parents… I'll talk to her about it in a few days. Give her sometime to think about it." I looked around and saw a table was still in the room.

"Dorika." She looked at me curiously. "Why don't you go over to that table and climb on top of it. That way you can get onto my back a little easier." I said to her. She looked at the table and then me and nodded her head.

I followed her as she walked over to the table and watched as she made her way onto it. "Okay I'm ready!" She said excitedly. I raised my eyebrow slightly, but moved along side of the table and laid down with a smile.

I turned my head to the side so it would be easier for her to grab onto my queue, and a few moments later I felt her grab on and use my queue like a rope to leverage her self onto me.

Once she was safely on I took a deep breath through my nose realized that Dorika needed a bath. Badly.

"Okay little one, first opportunity you get you are going to be taking a shower, and I don't want to hear any buts about it okay?" I asked.

I heard her sigh, but heard her say, "Okay." And then she asked me. "But can you make sure no boys come near the shower, and I need some new clothes."

"Okay, I have no problem with the first request, but finding some clothes that will fit you might be a little hard here. There aren't any children here so I doubt that they have any clothing your size. Still I will do what I can but no guarantees."

I started walking towards the door when a confused sounding Dorika asked, "No kids… what kind of place is this!"

I chuckled and said, "The kind of place that doesn't usually have children in it. So you will need to be careful when I'm not around to watch over you." I take a more serious tone here. "I'm not kidding, you really need to be careful around here, you could get hurt real bad if you aren't."

I'm walking down the hall towards the mess hall, I only know where it is because I can smell the food coming from it.

"Then what can I do for fun, and I need to do all of those school and music lessons still Spencer?" She asked, she sounded annoyed at the thought of do her doing such things.

I didn't say anything at first, thinking, but after a moment I asked her, "What instrument do you play?"

"Well I play the clarinet and the piano." She said. "I don't know why my Mo-" Dorika stopped suddenly.

"Your Mom had you learning to play?" I gently asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it." She said sullenly.

"I'll always be their to listen, you don't have to worry about that, but you do need to talk about it eventually okay." I said as I paused and turned my head to look Dorika in the eye.

She didn't say anything, but I could tell she was thinking about it. "Come on we still need to find someone to talk about getting you some clothes."  
She nodded her head and with that I worked my way down the

* * *

And that is it for now readers. I am sorry that it this is happening, but I want to be able to do justice for this story. The plot line that I made for this involves a few time skips and me fighting (I know that it is also another disappointment, with the only 'fight' scene being the hippos, not that it could even be considered one in the first place) for survival against the Covenant and the Forerunners.

After that I would end up just living out my life or dying some where along the way. So while it would have been a rather interesting experience I don't particularly think that is what I want to do with the story.

So I hope to do better and I hope to hear your, the readers, opinions on the matter.


End file.
